Patient's question:
My uncle has had epilepsy for a long time, and it hasn't been very painful. Regarding epilepsy, if he is having grand mal seizures, can he be cured by taking phenytoin?Doctor's answer:
Symptomatic epilepsy is caused by various brain lesions and metabolic disorders, resulting in the presence of epileptic foci in the brain. These foci consist of neurons that suddenly generate high-frequency repetitive abnormal discharges, which can spread continuously to nearby cortex until strong suppression prevents further discharge, leading to the termination of epilepsy. Idiopathic epilepsy, on the other hand, does not involve any identifiable structural changes or metabolic abnormalities in the brain of affected patients. Its onset is closely related to genetic factors.