DEHYDRATION AND EPILEPSY

Abstract

To the Editor: —I have noted inThe Journal, April 1, the report on dehydration and epilepsy by Drs. Fetterman and Kumin, concerning twenty-one epileptic patients observed for a period of about one month. I feel that it is dangerous to reduce a patient's fluids to 100 cc. a day; the purposes and objectives of the method are ignored when carried to this extreme degree. The objective is not to subtract fluid to an intolerable degree, from the customary routine of the patient, but to subtract fluid from the patient's body fluid reservoirs. Unless the patient demonstrates actual loss of body weight, there is no subtraction or no real dehydration. A pint, or 500 cc., weighs approximately one pound, and unless water is subtracted from the body tissue reservoirs there will arise no change in cerebrospinal fluid volume or pressure. If the patient receives sufficient liquids in other forms, such