Epilepsy is one of the most distributed disorders within the child population, characterized by the appearance of a significant number of seizures, as well as the need for the use of different drugs to control seizures.
These children have a high risk of presenting cognitive or emotional alterations, with the possibility of having important consequences on school performance or adaptation to the environment and even the family.
During these days we will know a little more about this pathology that affects approximately five out of every 1,000 people. We will start this series of posts trying to clarify a little more what is childhood epilepsy.
The childhood epilepsy It is a chronic disease of multiple origin characterized by the presence of repeated crises caused by the excessive discharge of a group of brain neurons, associated with a wide variety of clinical manifestations.
In addition to this neuronal discharge, which causes epileptic seizures, other alterations may also appear at the motor, sensory, affective or even cognitive levels. On the other hand, the appearance of sudden and unexpected crises and their tendency to recurrence is characteristic of epilepsy.
As is well known, an epileptic crisis is a crisis produced in the brain, but only half of the cerebral seizures have epileptic nature. Among those considered cerebral seizures of a non-epileptic nature we can find sob spasms, hypoglycemia crisis, hypoxic-ischemic episodes, motor disorders or parasomnias, among others.
A special case, within non-epileptic seizures, are the so-called Feverish convulsions, which are spasms caused by fever, and do not originate in an infection of the central nervous system. They generally appear in children under five years old, constituting the most common convulsive manifestation in childhood, since it is not uncommon for young children to have a history of febrile seizures. As a rule, febrile seizures have a duration of less than 15 minutes, and generally do not usually recur, so their prognosis is good.
Returning to the group of seizures of epileptic origin, these are characterized by an excessive, synchronous and uncontrolled neuronal discharge, there being a higher energy consumption than usual, as well as a greater metabolic activation in the brain. In addition, these crises are usually accompanied by alterations of consciousness, sensory, motor or cognitive activity.
There is also the call epileptic stroke, which coincides with the moment in which the crisis takes place. On the other hand, the interictal period It is the time between two consecutive crises. In addition, we may consider that epilepsy is active when there has been a seizure over the past two years; on the contrary, we say that it is in remission if none has occurred during that period of time.
Some of the temporary alterations that we can find during an epileptic crisis in brain cells are, among others, increased metabolic demands, lack of oxygen (hypoxia), reduced blood flow, hypoglycemia, arterial hypotension or temperature increase ( hyperthermia) Protein production is also provisionally stopped.
Approximately half of the crises occur during the day, while in 20% of cases they occur during the night. There are many factors that can cause an epileptic crisis, for example: lack of sleep, too much sensory stimulation, hormonal factors, stress, hyperventilation, hypoglycemia, hypoxia ...
It may also be that, speaking on the topic of epilepsy, the term may appear status epilepticus or status epilepticusThis is the repetition of several consecutive crises for a period exceeding half an hour, without recovery of consciousness, preventing the different functions of the brain from being carried out normally.
Any modality of epileptic crisis can give rise to an epileptic status and its duration can last for several hours. In children it is common for epileptic status to affect only one half of the body, considerably compromising the child's level of consciousness.
To finish this first look on what is childhood epilepsy, and before continuing with other aspects of this disorder, it is important to keep in mind that the presence of a state of epileptic disease always poses a great threat to the child's life and urgent assistance is necessary to avoid further damage.
