Epilepsy is one of the most common chronic neurological diseases, which manifests itself in the form of sudden convulsive seizures. Most often, epilepsy is congenital in nature and anatomical brain damage is not observed, but only a violation of the conductivity of nerve signals. But there is also symptomatic (secondary) epilepsy. This form of the disease develops with damage to the brain or metabolic disorders in it.
Classification of symptomatic epilepsy
Like any other type of epilepsy, the symptomatic is divided into generalized and localized.
- Generalized epilepsy manifests itself as a result of changes in the depth divisions and in the future its manifestations affect the entire brain.
- Localized (focal, partial) symptomatic epilepsy , as the name implies, is caused by the defeat of any part of the brain and the violation of the passage of signals in its cortex. It is divided (by the affected area) into:
- symptomatic temporal lobe epilepsy;
- symptomatic frontal epilepsy;
- symptomatic epilepsy of the parietal lobe;
- symptomatic epilepsy of the occipital lobe.
Symptoms of symptomatic epilepsy
Generalized seizures usually occur with loss of consciousness and complete loss of control over their actions. Most often, the attack is accompanied by a fall and pronounced convulsions.
In general, the manifestations of partial seizures depend on the location of the focus and can be motor, mental, vegetative, sensual.
There are two forms of severity of symptomatic epilepsy - mild and severe.
- With light attacks, a person usually does not lose consciousness, but he has deceptive, unusual sensations, loss of control over parts of the body.
- With complex attacks, it is possible to lose contact with reality (a person does not realize where he is, what happens to him), convulsive contractions of certain muscle groups, uncontrolled movements.
Frontal symptomatic epilepsy is characterized by:
- sudden onset of seizures;
- short length (40-60 seconds);
- high frequency;
- motor phenomena ("foot pedaling", complex repetitive gestures, etc.).
When temporal symptomatic epilepsy is observed:
- confusion of consciousness;
- facial and carpal automatisms;
- auditory and visual hallucinations.
With parietal epilepsy, there are:
- muscle spasms;
- painful sensations;
- violation of temperature perception;
- bouts of sexual desire.
With occipital epilepsy characterized by:
- visual hallucinations;
- violation of the field of vision;
- uncontrolled blinking;
- twitching of the head.
Diagnosis and treatment of symptomatic epilepsy
The diagnosis of "epilepsy" is made by repeated repetition of seizures. To diagnose brain damage using an electroencephalogram (EEG), magnetic resonance imaging
Treatment of symptomatic epilepsy depends primarily on its type and form of manifestations and can be medicinal or surgical. Surgery may be required if epilepsy is caused by hemorrhages, impaired blood flow to the brain, tumors, aneurysms.
In most cases, this disease is treated with the help of a specially selected course of drugs, which are determined depending on the type and causes that caused epilepsy.
It should be remembered that epilepsy is a severe neurological disease and self-medication in this case is unacceptable and dangerous for life.