Epilepsy and Fits/Funny turns/Seizures Flashcards
What are types of generalised seizures?
- Absence seizures
- Generalised tonic-clonic seizures
- Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy
- Myoclonic seizure
- Clonic seizure
- Tonic/Atonic seizure
What are causes of a provoked seizure?
- Alcohol withdrawal
- Drug withdrawal
- Within a few days of head injury
- Within 24 hours of stroke
- Within 24 hrs neurosurgery
- Severe electrolyte disturbances
- Eclampsia
What are the different types of focal seizures?
- Simple partial Seizures
- Complex Partial seizures
- Partial seizures with secondary generalised
What are features of absence seizures?
“Petit-Mal”
Loss of awareness and a vacant expression for <10 seconds before returning abruptly to normal and continuing as though nothing had happened.
Apart from slight fluttering of the eyelids there are no motor manifestations.
Patients do not realise they have had an attack
Can lead to T-C in later life
PRESENTS IN CHILDHOOD
What can absence seizure be provoked by?
- Hyperventilation
- Photic stimulation
Who do absence seizures occur most commonly in?
Children
What are features of myoclonic seisures?
Sudden muscle jerking involving limb, face or trink. Usually followed by unconsciousness.
What is a myoclonic seizure?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzBBezFqVMo
Myoclonic seizures or ‘jerks’ take the form of momentary brief contractions of a muscle or muscle groups, e.g. causing a sudden involuntary twitch of a finger or hand.
What prodromal features of Tonic-Clonic seizures?
- Often no warning
- Can have an aura - strange feeling in gut, deja-vu, strange smell, flashing lights
What are features of the tonic phase of a tonic clinc seizure?
10-60 seconds
- Rigidity
- Epileptic cry
- Tongue biting
- Incontinence
- Hypoxia/cyanosis – no breathing during this phase
What are features of the post-ictal phase of tonic-clonic seizures?
Period of flaccid unresponsiveness, followed by gradual return of awareness with Confusion + Drowsiness lasting from 15 minutes to 1 hour. Headache is common in tonic-clonic seizures
What do tonic clonic seizures look like?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nds2U4CzvC4
Rhythmic jerking in clonic phase
What are tonic seizures?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjnzFZ0wrJU
Seizures consisting of stiffening of the body, not followed by jerking
What is the definition of epilepsy?
A recurrent tendency to spontaneous, intermittent, abnormal electrical activity in part of the brain, manifesting as seizures. Convulsions are the motor manifestations of electrical discharge
What are the features of simple partial seizures?
- Focal motor/sensory/autonomic/psychic symptoms
- Awareness is unimpaired
No affect on consciousness or memory, awareness is unimpaired.
What are focal seizures most often seen in?
Structural disease in one hemisphere
What are the features of complex partial seizures?
- Can have aura and post-ictal phase
- Impaired awareness - lasting for 1–2 minutes on average
- Retrograde amnesia
- Speech arrest
- Automatisms – semi-purposeful stereotyped motions such as lip smacking or dystonic limb posturing, or more complex motor behaviours such as walking in a circle or undressing.
What are examples of automatisms seen in complex partial seizures?
- Lip smacking
- Dystonic limb posturing
- Walking round in circles
- Undressing
Where do complex partial seizures most commonly originate from?
Temporal lobe (60%) or frontal lobe
What are aura features that individuals can experience when they have complex partial seizures?
- Rising epigastric sensation and nausea
-
Hallucinations:
- Déjà vu or jamais vu
- Olfactory hallucinations
- Formed visual hallucinations or misperceptions
- Fear
What proportion of those with partial seizures develop secondary generalised seizures?
2/3rds
What features would localise seizure source to the temporal lobe?
- Automatisms
- Emotional disturbance
- Hallucinations - olfactory or visual
- Delusional behaviour
- Bizarre associations
- Dysphasia
- Deja-vu/feeling of unreality
- Post-ictal confusion
What features would localise a focal seizure to the frontal lobe?
- Motor features - posturing, peddling movement
- Typically beginin in cornery of mouth leading to involvement of limbs on opposite side of epileptic focus
- Jacksonian march
- Motor arrest
- Subtle behaviour disturbance
- Dysphasia/speech arrest
- Todd’s Paralysis - limb weakness following seizure
What is jacksonian march?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OADO9ucNiM
Spreading of focal motor seizure with retained awareness, often starting with face or thumb
What features of a focal seizure would imply it origintaed in the parietal lobe?
- Sensory disturbances - tingling, numbess, pain
- Motor disturbance - spreda to precentral gyrus
What features of a focal seizure would point to it having originated in the occipital lobe?
Visual phenomena
- Spots
- Lines
- Flashes
What is Todd’s paralysis
Transient neurological deficit (paresis) following a seizure. May have:
- Weakness in face, arms, legs
- Aphasia
- Gaze palsy
Lasts for 30mins to 36 hrs
What would you differential diagnosis be for a fit/seizure?
- Idiopathic epilepsy - known or new
- Syncope, faint, vasovagal attack
- Migraine
- Cardiac arrhythmia
- Stroke
- Narcolpesy
- Brain tumour
- Meningitis
- Hypoxia
- Alcohol withdrawal
- Hypoglycaemia
- Hypotension
- Severe electrolyte distrubance
- Pseudoseizure
What are causes of epilepsy?
- Idiopathic
- Cortical scarring - due to previous head injury
- Developmental problems
- Degenerative conditions
- SOLs
- Stroke/Vascular malformations
- Hippocampal sclerosis
- Tuberous Sclerosis
- SLE
- Encephalitis
- Metabolic abnormalities
- Hydrocephalus
- Drugs/Alcohol withdrawal
What is primary generalised epilepsy?
Epilepsy caused by a structurally normal brain but abnormalities of ion channels influencing neuronal firing, abnormalities of neurotransmitter release and synaptic connections.
What are features of the clonic phase of tonic clonic seizures?
Seconds to minutes
- Convulsions/limb jerking
- Eye rolling
- Tachycardia
- No breathing/random, uncoordinated breaths
What drugs can cause epilepsy?
- Drugs for neurological/psychiatric disorders - e.g. TCA’s, MAO inhibitors, amphetamines, propofol
- Drug withdrawal – e.g. anticonvulsants
- Alcohol induced hypoglycaemia
- Alcohol withdrawal
What are automatisms?
Complex motor phenomena with impaired wareness, from primative oral to manual movements/complex actions
What is the pathophysiology of epilepsy?
Abnormal SYNCHRONISED discharge of many neurons - Normal inhibitory mechanisms fail.
Sequence of events:
- Paroxysmal discharge of cerebral neurones
- Excitation of cerebral cortex
- Seizure
- Epilepsy (continuing seizures)
What is the main excitatory neurotransmitter involved in epilepsy?
Glutamate
What is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter involved in epilepsy?
GABA
What metabolic abnormalities can cause epilepsy?
- Hypoglycaemia
- Hypocalcaemia
- Hyponatraemia
- Hypoxia
- Uraemia
- Mitochondrial disease
What are triggers of epileptic seizures?
- Sleep deprivation
- Alcohol (alcohol intake AND alcohol withdrawal)
- Drug misuse
- Physical/mental exhaustion, stress
- Flickering lights – cause primary generalised epilepsy only
- Infection / metabolic disturbance
What are the different primary generalised seizures in children?
- Childhood abscence epilepsy
- Juveniale absence epilepsy
- Juvenile myoclonic Epilepsy
What is the age of onset of childhood absence epilepsy?
4-8 years - 80% remit by age 18
What is the age of onset of juvenile absence epilepsy?
10-15 years
What is the age of onset of juvenile myoclonic epilepsy?
15-20 years