Patient's question:
The colleague's daughter is 3 years old and has epilepsy. During an attack, she suddenly loses consciousness, stops breathing, and experiences convulsions in all four limbs. What are the symptoms of pediatric epilepsy? Where is the best place to treat it?Doctor's answer:
1. Grand Mal: Accounts for about 50% of all epilepsy seizures, typically occurring around 1 year of age or between 14-17 years old. Grand Mal can be divided into four stages:(1) Aura Stage: Symptoms include dizziness and stomach discomfort.
(2) Tonic Stage: Sudden loss of consciousness, falling to the ground, head extension, and rigid limbs. Due to diaphragmatic spasms, patients may emit a "sheep-like" bellow, with bluish complexion, dilated pupils, and temporary cessation of breathing, lasting for several seconds.
(3) Clonic Stage: Rhythmic muscle twitching throughout the body, often biting the tongue, foaming at the mouth, and possible incontinence of urine and feces, generally lasting 1-3 minutes.
(4) Recovery Stage: It usually takes several minutes to regain consciousness. Patients cannot recall the seizure process and may experience general pain and fatigue. In rare cases, some patients may exhibit agitation, running around, shouting uncontrollably, or even attacking and destroying objects during recovery.
2. Petit Mal: Also known as absence seizure, petit mal epilepsy is characterized by brief loss of consciousness. Most patients experience complete loss of awareness, though occasionally they may have mild consciousness impairment, still aware of their surroundings, able to hear questions but unable to respond. The key feature is brief and frequent episodes of loss of consciousness.
3. Psychomotor Seizure: Against the backdrop of impaired consciousness,,, and may occur. As it is often caused by temporal lobe lesions, it is also referred to as temporal lobe epilepsy. The onset age is relatively late among all types of epilepsy, typically occurring around 20 years old for the first time. Approximately 40% of patients experience aura before the seizure, feeling stomach discomfort, auditory hallucinations, gustatory hallucinations, dizziness, nausea, or fear.