Seizures Flashcards
Seizure
Brief episode of abnormal electrical activity in neurons—spontaneous firing causing motor, sensory, and cognitive manifestations
Convulsions
More severe seizure characteristic involving spasmodic muscle contraction
Epilepsy
Primary idiopathic chronic seizures; involves recurrent paroxysmal (sudden) seizure activity; need to rule out metabolic causes before diagnosis; electrical storm
Myoclonic seizure
Brief, shocklike jerks of muscle; often overlooked as tremor or tic; occurs in a localized area
Gliosis
Scar tissue over an area of seizure
Primary seizures
Idiopathic; 50% of the time; epilepsy
Secondary seizures
From chemical imbalance, blood sugar, drugs, febrile
Brain disorder that cause seizures
TBI, stroke, meningitis, tumor
Seizure threshold
Likelihood to seize; higher threshold—lower chance of seizure happening
What raises the seizure threshold?
Good sleep, meds
What lowers the threshold
Drinking, menses, mismedication, illness, fever, buproprione, tramadol, antibiotics
3 identifiers of seizure classification
Area of origin, patient’s level of awareness of the seizure, other features like motor or non-motor sx
Generalized onset seizure (formerly grand mal)
Activity in gray matter in both hemispheres
Tonic-clinic seizure
Type of generalized seizure with tonic (contraction phase) and clonic (classic seize and jerk)
Absence seizure
Type of generalized seizure where patient have brief loss of awareness with spasmodic eye blinking for up to 30 seconds; more common in kids
Focal onset seizure
Origin in local or focal region (1 lobe); subtypes based on patient’s awareness of seizure
Phases of focal onset seizure
Prodromal (preceding s/s), aural (sensory warning), ictal (actual seizure), post-ictal recovery; can progress into tonic-clonic
Aura
Subjective sense of impending seizure; jerk, HA, lethargic, mood alter, palpitation, odors, taste, smells
Status epilepticus
Brain damage occurring from continuous series of multiple seizures w/o recovery period for 30+ minutes; biggest concern is with tonic-clonic—life-threatening bc can cause resp arrest, hypoxia, brain damage, death
How can you monitor seizure activity?
With EEGs—crazier lines means more activity
