Patient's question:
The child of my cousin visited my home a few days ago. However, while playing, the child suddenly started foaming at the mouth and had convulsions all over. It scared us badly at the time. We took the child to the hospital, and the doctor said the child had epilepsy. My cousin is very worried.Doctor's answer:
Epilepsy is a chronic, recurrent syndrome of transient brain dysfunction characterized by repeated seizures caused by abnormal discharges of brain neurons. The main symptoms of a seizure include sudden loss of consciousness, followed by tonic-clonic convulsions. It is often accompanied by screaming, bluish complexion, incontinence, bitten tongue, foaming at the mouth or blood foam, and dilated pupils. The convulsive seizure lasts for tens of seconds or minutes before naturally stopping, followed by a state of sleepiness. After waking up, there is a short period of dizziness, irritability, and fatigue, with no memory of the seizure process. If the seizure persists continuously, leading to continuous coma, it is referred to as status epilepticus, which is often life-threatening.