Phases of a Seizure Flashcards
What are the phases of a seizure?
- Prodromal
- Early ictal “aura”
- Ictal
- Postictal
Aura and ictal are both characterized as occurring during the seizure
Ictal phase includes the time between the beginning (aura) and the end of the seizure
Prodromal phase
Subjective feeling or sensation that can occur several hours or even days before the actual seizure
Symptoms include:
- Confusion
- Anxiety
- Irritability
- Headache
- Tremor
- Anger
- Mood disturbance/mood swings
- Trouble sleeping
Early ictal phase (aura)
the earliest sign of seizure activity
AKA focal aware seizure
- Bitter, acidic taste
- Deja vu (familiarity)
- Dizziness
- Flickering vision
- Hallucinations
- Head, arm, leg pain
- Jamais vu (unfamiliarity)
- Nausea/stomachache
- Numbness
- Out-of-body sensation
- Ringing or buzzing sounds
- Strange, offensive smells
- Strong feelings of joy, sadness, fear, anger
- Subtle arm or leg twitching
- Tingling
- Vision loss of blurring
- Automatism can occur in this phase as well
Ictal phase
- Depend on type of seizure
E.g.,
- convulsions
- stiffening
- automatism
- confusion
- difficulty breathing
- twitching
- inability to move or speak
- loss of bladder and/or bowel control => incontinence
- cyanosis
- vision loss, blurring, flashing
Post-ictal phase
Recovery period
Length of post-ictal stage depends on the seizure type, severity, region of brain affected; may recover immediately or last from minutes, hours, to days
Typical symptoms:
- body soreness
- arm or leg weakness
- confusion
- drowsiness
- feeling of fear, embarrassment, sadness
- general malaise, fatigue, exhaustion
- memory loss
- nausea
- thirst
- hypertension
Post-ictal symptoms
(e.g., in secondary generalized)
- Post-ictal confusion
- Todd’s paresis
Todd’s paralysis: weakness on one side of the body, opposite the side where seizure activity began, as a result of postictal depression in brain activity; lasts avg 15h, subsides after 2 days
