Epilepsy Flashcards
What is the incidence of epilepsy?
50 per 100,000 per year.
What is the prevalence of epilepsy?
5–10 per 1,000 people.
Define a seizure.
A paroxysmal discharge of cerebral neurons causing detectable disturbance in consciousness, behavior, emotion, or motor/sensory function.
What defines epilepsy?
A condition of recurrent, usually spontaneous seizures.
What percentage of epilepsy patients have focal seizures?
Approximately 60%.
Where do 60–70% of focal seizures originate?
The temporal lobe.
What proportion of patients achieve seizure freedom with anticonvulsants?
60–70%.
A patient presents with lip-smacking, undressing, and an odd smell aura. Which lobe is likely affected?
Temporal lobe.
A patient has twitching of the right face and arm while conscious, with speech difficulty. What is the likely seizure type?
Focal motor seizure, likely frontal or temporal lobe.
What symptoms suggest parietal lobe involvement in seizures?
Positive sensory disturbance (e.g., tingling), often followed by motor activity.
Colored blobs in one hemifield for 30 seconds suggest which lobe?
Occipital lobe.
Name a function of the frontal lobe relevant to epilepsy.
Motor control, language expression, inhibition, bladder continence.
What sensory functions are localized to the parietal lobe?
Sensory integration, receptive language.
What are key features of temporal lobe seizures?
Aura (smell, taste, fear), automatisms, postictal confusion, speech arrest.
What visual symptoms suggest occipital seizures over migraine?
Unformed, multicolored shapes, confined to hemifield.
What percentage of patients labeled with epilepsy may have another cause for blackouts?
5–20%.
What symptoms suggest a panic attack over a seizure?
Hyperventilation, palpitations, fear, chest pain, preserved awareness.
What key features differentiate syncope from epilepsy?
Syncope involves loss of tone and consciousness due to reduced cerebral perfusion, typically with rapid recovery.
How does a TIA differ from a parietal lobe seizure?
TIA symptoms are negative (loss of function), while seizures often have positive symptoms (e.g., tingling).
What is the new term for ‘partial seizures’?
Focal seizures.
What replaces ‘complex partial seizures’?
Focal impaired awareness seizures.
What does ‘focal to bilateral tonic-clonic’ replace?
Secondarily generalized seizures.
What are the four classification criteria for epilepsy?
Seizure type, aetiology, awareness impairment, anatomical site.
Define status epilepticus.
A tonic-clonic seizure lasting ≥5 minutes, or repeated seizures without recovery for ≥30 minutes.
