Patient's question:
My son is 9 years old and has had epilepsy for over 2 years. The EEG shows and slow waves in the central, temporal, and occipital regions. The main characteristics of his seizures are, with swallowing and the episodes lasting only a few seconds. Previously, he had corner of the mouth twitching, but now the most prominent symptom is, with all over his body. The seizures usually occur about an hour after falling asleep. This has been noticed for half a year now.Doctor's answer:
Epilepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by recurrent, unprovoked seizures that result from abnormal, excessive electrical discharges in a group of brain cells. Epilepsy with an unknown cause is termed primary epilepsy, while epilepsy that results from identifiable causes such as intracranial tumors, head trauma, infections, parasitic diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, or systemic metabolic disorders is referred to as secondary epilepsy. Treatment primarily involves selecting appropriate medications based on the type of seizure to control them. For epilepsy with a known cause, in addition to effectively controlling seizures, the underlying disease should be actively treated. For refractory epilepsy that does not respond to medication, surgical options such as stereotactic surgery to destroy brain regions associated with epilepsy, corpus callosotomy, or chronic cerebellar stimulation may be considered.