Patient's question:
Which hospital in Hefei has the best effect on treating epilepsy?Doctor's answer:
Epilepsy is a disease and syndrome characterized by intermittent dysfunction of the central nervous system due to repeated, sudden, excessive discharge of brain neurons. It is a disorder originating in the brain, with varying degrees of impairment in motor, sensory, autonomic nervous system, and conscious and mental states, recurring repeatedly. This definition summarizes the complexity of epilepsy symptoms and more broadly captures its two fundamental features: recurrence and repetition.The term "recurrence" refers to the certainty of subsequent episodes after the first one, with intervals between them. Even the most common type of seizure, if it occurs only once, lacks recurrence and cannot be diagnosed as epilepsy. The term "repetition" means that symptoms appear suddenly and also cease suddenly. We may have witnessed patients suddenly collapsing and seizing while walking or eating, only to recover after a period of time. Some children with abdominal epilepsy may experience severe abdominal pain, uncontrollable crying, or collapse during play, which disappears completely within minutes or tens of minutes before they resume playing. Regardless of how complex epilepsy's symptoms may be, they must possess these two features, which are also crucial for diagnosis.
Childhood epilepsy has a higher incidence rate and significantly impacts health. Due to the physiological characteristics of newborns and changes in the nervous and fluid systems, the clinical features of pediatric epilepsy differ in some aspects from those of adults.
(1) Gender, age of onset, and recurrence types: Generally, males are more affected than females, with the highest incidence in young children. Age is closely related to recurrence types—for example, infantile spasms almost always occur before the age of one, motor seizures typically begin before the age of six, absence seizures most commonly begin between the ages of one and eight, and other types of epilepsy often have an onset before the age of ten. Neonatal epilepsy is often subtle and tends to be focal, while older children exhibit more pronounced seizures that are generalized.
(2) Recurrence manifestations: The incidence rates of different epilepsy recurrence types vary with age, and their clinical manifestations are closely related to the maturity of the central nervous system. In addition to the common grand seizures that can occur at any age in children, neonatal epilepsy typically presents as stereotyped repetitive movements, often accompanied by abnormal eye movements.