Epilepsy: Causes, Symptoms, Treatment

Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder. According to statistics, epilepsy is detected in 7 of every 1,000 children up to the age of 17, and in 5 of every 1,000 people after that age (adults). The condition shows itself as spontaneous attacks of muscle convulsions, and in some cases it is also accompanied by loss of consciousness, personality changes, altered sensitivity of the olfactory, auditory and/or visual receptors, hallucinations and so on. (Attacks of the disease are called epileptic seizures.) The disorder develops due to damage to the gray matter of the cortex and increased activity of neurons in the brain.

You can receive epilepsy treatment in Kyiv from a specialist in this field (a neurologist or an epileptologist) at CSM Clinic, a multidisciplinary clinic. Our full-cycle medical center has what is needed for accurate diagnosis and effective treatment: specialists with extensive clinical experience, expert-level diagnostic and treatment equipment, affordable prices for services and a sincere wish to help you.

If necessary, wherever you are, our specialist can hold an online consultation and adjust treatment according to test results and circumstances. All you need for a remote consultation is internet access and the results of your examinations. (We provide accurate diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy in children and adults.)

Need a consultation about epilepsy? Book an appointment with a neurologist or at the pediatric epileptology department of CSM Clinic in Kyiv.

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Symptoms of Epilepsy

The signs of epilepsy (setting aside the results of medical diagnostics) differ in each particular case and depend on the area of the brain where the focus of disturbance is located and on how widely it spreads. In addition, the symptoms of epilepsy in a child and in an adult may be either temporary or permanent. The specific features of the symptoms of an epileptic seizure also vary depending on age.

Even so, the nature of the seizure itself is the main symptom.

The classification of seizures includes two main types:

• Generalized — both hemispheres of the brain are involved:

• tonic-clonic: stretching of the neck, convulsions and involuntary bending of the limbs, clenched jaw (the tongue may be bitten), a hoarse cry when falling, twitching of the whole body, difficulty breathing, loss of consciousness for several minutes, possibly excessive saliva in the mouth and loss of bladder control;
• absence (a generalized seizure in children aged 4-14): a gentler course than a tonic-clonic seizure, with a brief disturbance of consciousness — as a rule, the child's gaze is fixed on one point;
• myoclonic: contraction of individual muscles or most muscle groups; most often the seizure lasts no more than a few seconds;
• atonic: a sudden, short-lived (up to 15 seconds) loss of muscle tone (a fall is possible because of loss of balance);
• tonic: a sudden, short-lived (up to 20 seconds) contraction and tension of the muscles, possibly with closing of the eyes and difficulty breathing;
• clonic (rare): repeated muscle spasms and twitching.

• Focal — a limited area of the brain is involved: the seizure may or may not be accompanied by impaired responsiveness, perception and awareness, subjective sensory or mental phenomena and so on (sometimes these seizures may progress into a bilateral convulsive seizure.)

Seizures may also be accompanied by symptoms (including unknown ones) that do not fall into any category of the classification.

Consequences of Epilepsy

Epilepsy that is left untreated or treated incorrectly can lead to problems such as:

• severe functional impairment of speech and memory;
• delayed physical and mental development (in children);
• persistent changes in the psyche and personality.

The consequences of epilepsy can also be considered in terms of the danger that epileptic seizures pose to the patient's health.

Broadly, seizures can be divided into motor and generalized.

While motor seizures do not pose a serious danger to the patient, generalized convulsive seizures are a serious threat not only to health but also to life.

Generalized seizures involve the vast majority of the body's muscles and can last 6-7 minutes, during which the patient may:

• cause themselves serious physical injuries;
• choke on vomit;
• swallow the tongue;
• suffocate.

Such seizures are doubly dangerous if, at the moment one begins, the person with epilepsy is near an open flame or any hot surface, behind the wheel of a car, at a height, on a railway or subway platform, next to a production line or holding a small child in their arms.

In addition, consultations with specialists in related fields may be prescribed — a neurologist, a psychiatrist, an endocrinologist and others.

Epilepsy must be differentiated from an epileptic syndrome, which has similar symptoms — episodes of convulsions resembling an epileptic seizure — but is a separate neurological problem that occurs in many diseases.

Patients can also be assessed in an online consultation format. For this, you will need to provide the doctor with your examination results.

Drug Therapy

If you or your child has been prescribed drug therapy, it is important to know the following about treatment:

• most often a single drug is prescribed, but there are cases when monotherapy is not effective enough and needs to be supplemented with other drugs — this is normal;
• antiepileptic drugs are taken on a continuous basis, even after the number of epileptic seizures has decreased;
• only a doctor can decide to lower the dose of a drug or discontinue it (without the risk of seizures returning).

Physiotherapy

At CSM Clinic, physiotherapy methods are actively used in the treatment of epilepsy. They may help patients of different ages and with different severity and causes of the disease. As with drug therapy, whether to prescribe physiotherapy procedures is decided by the doctor, who weighs all the pros and cons.

Surgical Treatment

Surgery for epilepsy falls into two areas:

• implantation of a device that stimulates the vagus nerve (vagus nerve stimulator implantation);
• surgical intervention on the brain (most often removal of the temporal lobe or of focal cortical dysplasias).

Both methods are used very rarely in pediatrics.

As a rule, this approach is recommended for patients with organic brain damage, which can result from a hematoma, a stroke or a tumor.

Even in these cases, brain surgery is used only when treatment with antiepileptic drugs and device-based stimulation of the vagus nerve is not effective.

The vagus nerve stimulator is not implanted in the brain. Although the operation is performed under general anesthesia, it is considered simpler. During it, the surgeon makes two small skin incisions — in the left armpit and on the neck — where the stimulation device is placed.

The device helps to:

• reduce the activity of certain areas of the brain;
• prevent impulses that provoke convulsions;
• achieve a stronger effect from drug treatment (with smaller doses of the drug).

However, vagus nerve stimulation has its drawbacks, which appear as side effects such as cough, hoarseness, pain, and a scratchy feeling and discomfort in the throat.

Prevention of Epileptic Seizures

To keep epileptic seizures from recurring often, and in cases where the consequences of epilepsy need to be prevented, specialists give recommendations on:

• preventing head injuries and hard blows when falling;
• giving first aid during a seizure (an adult patient should show the people close to them the correct actions);
• creating a favorable psycho-emotional environment;
• using special medicines and other methods to lower a child's temperature (to prevent the onset of convulsions), and relaxation and relaxation exercises to minimize stressful states that provoke seizures;
• eliminating provoking factors, and so on.

Regardless of age, a person with epilepsy should not be pushed outside the bounds of normal everyday life. Conditions should be created in which they can continue to socialize, study, work, play sports and so on. Epileptic seizures must in no way become a life sentence.

Benefits of Epilepsy Treatment at the Clinic

1. CSM Clinic in Kyiv is a private full-cycle medical center where you can receive expert diagnosis, quality treatment, rehabilitation and prevention of possible consequences.
2. Doctors with extensive clinical experience and a high level of empathy.
3. The option of an online consultation, no matter where in the world you are at the moment.
4. Expert-level diagnostic and treatment equipment.
5. A personalized approach to the treatment of each patient.
6. Affordable cost of an epileptologist consultation.

Not sure which doctor treats epilepsy and whom to see if you suspect this condition? Looking for a competent specialist? CSM Clinic in Kyiv can help with these and other questions. We also offer an online consultation or a visit to our center in Bila Tserkva: comfortable accommodation at a hotel on the clinic's premises, high-quality medical services, safety during air-raid alerts and more. Entrust your health to professionals — we will do our best to help!