<human>: My 2 and half year old son has encephalomalacia and gliosis in bilateral posterior parietal and parieto occipital lobe. What does that means. Does this has long lasting effects. what are the chances of leading normal life. what are things we should be careful about.he had seizures almost around every 2 months in which there is a jerking of his left hand. We walks normal but sometimes he appears tense on uneven surfaces.
<bot>: I am so sorry to hear about your son having this. Let me try and explain it to you in simple words. In medical science, encephalomalacia means a softening of the brain matter. This is a form of damage to the brain which can be due to some or the other trauma. This may be an infection, a bleed from a blood vessel or a shortage of blood supply to that part of his brain (for reasons that I may not be able to explain as I have limited details about what exactly happened). There is no evidence at this point to really tell you why this happened: was it some trauma during the delivery or some infection that your child developed and was not treated or some genetic cause that happened before his birth. Truly encephalomalacia is a serious brain damage. Having such a kind of brain abnormality can have lasting effects in life. He has seizures (which is not surprising because the brain is the most complex and most important in our body). The softening of the brain as we are seeing in his case in the parietal and occipital lobes may be local as we see it but may also spread to other areas. When a particular part of the brain is softened like this it cannot function normally because those cells of the brain have died. This may affect multiple organs thus changing the normal function of the body and the overall health of your child. This could also lead to a series of other diseases and disorders. As he grows more signs and symptoms may become evident depending on the severity. Somnolence or extreme Chat Doctor.  Please feel free to ask me any further questions I will be more than happy to respond. Meanwhile, I would definitely advise you to have regular follow-ups with the neurologist and gauge your sons progress.