Preview

Child Seizure Research Paper

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
667 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Child Seizure Research Paper
A seizure is a burst of abnormal electrical activity in the brain. Seizures often involve uncontrollable shaking (convulsions). They may last from 30 seconds up to 2 minutes.
Seizures in children usually stop on their own, without treatment, as the brain matures.

CAUSES
The most common cause of seizures in children is fever. Other causes include:
• Birth trauma.
• Birth defects.
• Infection.
• Head injury.
• Developmental disorders.
• Low blood sugar.
Sometimes, the cause of a seizure is not known.

SYMPTOMS
Symptoms vary depending on the type of seizure your child has. Right before a seizure, your child may have a warning sensation (aura) that a seizure is about to occur. An aura may include the following symptoms:
…show more content…
• Staring.
• Unresponsiveness.
Symptoms after a seizure may include:
• Confusion.
• Sleepiness.
• Headache.
• Injury resulting from convulsions during the seizure.
Some symptoms of a seizure may be easier to notice than others. Children who do not convulse during a seizure and instead stare into space may look like they are daydreaming rather than having a seizure.

DIAGNOSIS
This condition is diagnosed based on characteristics of your child's seizure. It is important to observe your child's seizure very carefully so that you can describe how it looked and how long it lasted. This will help your child's health care provider diagnose your child's condition.
Your child’s health care provider will do a physical exam. Your child may have tests, including:
• Blood tests.
• CT scan.
• MRI.
• Electroencephalogram (EEG). This measures electrical activity in your child's brain.

TREATMENT
Treatment depends on the cause of the seizure. In many cases, no treatment is necessary. Seizures usually stop on their own. In some cases, medicine may be given to prevent future seizures.

HOME CARE INSTRUCTIONS
• Make sure that your child takes over-the-counter and prescription medicines only as told by your health care

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Epilepsy - Epilepsy is a condition in which the affected person has seizures or periods of loss of consciousness.…

    • 1149 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The triad cannot be tested directly, which has lead to misdiagnoses and false accusations because of the fact that the symptoms included in the triad could appear because of a completely different reason or condition. There is much evidence to support it, but the fact remains that one cannot one hundred percent confirm that a child has Shaken Baby Syndrome solely based on the triad.…

    • 965 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Seizure Study

    • 1908 Words
    • 8 Pages

    A seizure is a sudden disruption of the brain's normal electrical activity accompanied by altered consciousness and/or other neurological and behavioral manifestations. Epilepsy is a condition characterized by recurrent seizures with symptoms that vary from a momentary lapse of attention to severe convulsions.…

    • 1908 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Epilepsy is a neurological condition in which affects the nervous system and is also known as a seizure disorder. It is normally diagnosed after a person has had two or more seizures that weren 't caused by a known medical condition like extremely low blood sugar or alcohol withdrawal. The seizures in epilepsy may be related to a brain injury or a family tendency but most of the time it unfortunately unknown. “Epilepsy”, the word itself, does not indicate anything about the cause of the person 's seizures, what type they are or how severe they can or may be. Epilepsy is the condition of recurrent spontaneous seizures arising from abnormal electrical activity within the brain. Epileptogenesis…

    • 1488 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Idiopathic generalized Epilepsy (IGE) describes a group of epilepsy syndromes with a non-focal mechanism of onset and no identifiable cause other than a genetic disposition, (Current Science Inc., 2004). They are the most common form affecting both sexes and all races. IGE usually appears during childhood years or adolescence, but in some cases can appear in adulthood and are lifelong. IGE manifests with typical absences, myoclonic jerks, and generalised tonic-clonic seizures. It consists of a combination of loss of consciousness followed by generalized body stiffening (called the "tonic" phase of the seizure) for 30 to 60 seconds, then by violent jerking (the "clonic" phase) for 30 to 60 seconds, after which the patient goes into a deep sleep (the "postictal" or after-seizure phase). Sporadic jerks, usually on both sides of the body can also occur. Patients sometimes describe the jerks as brief electrical shocks. When violent, these seizures may result in dropping or involuntarily throwing…

    • 1715 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    References: 1. Duvivier EH, Pollack Jr CV. Seizures. In: Marx, JA, ed. Rosen 's Emergency Medicine: Concepts and Clinical Practice. 7th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Mosby Elsevier; 2009: chap 100.…

    • 982 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Epilepsy is a group of related disorders characterized by a tendency for recurring seizures. There are different types of epilepsy and seizures. Epilepsy drugs are prescribed to control seizures, and rarely surgery is necessary if medications are ineffective. Epilepsy is a disorder of the brain's electrical system. Abnormal electrical impulses cause brief changes in movement, behavior, sensation, or awareness.…

    • 1171 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    My definition of Epilepsy is pretty much the same; however, I would not have used the word briefly as it makes it sound so short lived. Seizures can last anywhere from a few seconds up to a few minutes. To get an accurate time adjustment use this comparison, for every second you are in a seizure you are killing many times the brain cells than if you were not. Add into this equation that the lack of oxygen to brain while in a seizure also increases the rate of brain cell death.…

    • 951 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Symptoms in children may be different than adults. (These results can consist of appearing dazed and being tired easily. Other mood problems consist of being cranky and irritable. Children may also have trouble walking and have a loss of balance. Crying excessively and change of eating patterns are signs as well.)…

    • 694 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Epilepsy

    • 1201 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Depending on the doctor, an EEG can be from 30 minutes to an entire week. Usually when a doctor is unsure whether to prescribe a medication, he or she wants to have a longer recording of the electrical activity. An EEG that is under 24 hours usually takes place in the Neurologist office or in a hospital. During this procedure, the doctor wants the patient to record each time they have a seizure. If the patient has abnormal electrical activity during these seizures, then the seizure is an Epileptic Seizure.…

    • 1201 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

    • 624 Words
    • 3 Pages

    For this study thirty-eight patients with temporal lobe epilepsy, as well as twenty controls were asked to participate in the project at the epilepsy clinic of the University of Campinas. Each participant went through various studies concerning their health, quality of life, physical activity, medications, etc. Patients that participated had MRI’s that were either normal or came back with signs of hippocampal…

    • 624 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Alcohol Withdrawal

    • 227 Words
    • 1 Page

    When a person who drinks a lot of alcohol stops drinking, he or she may go through alcohol withdrawal. Alcohol withdrawal causes problems. It can make a person feel:…

    • 227 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Epilepsy Case Study

    • 1950 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Cora was two years old when she had her first seizure. As a mother, I was frantic and scared that my little girl was dying of causes I could not understand. After rushing her to the hospital, the doctors asked many questions about what happened. I told them exactly what I saw which I describes as, “My child was just watching a cartoon on TV. She began to throw a fit for no reason so I walked away as I always did. However, unlike normal she screamed louder and fell to the floor where she started to have small convulsions. I had one of her older siblings call the family doctor while I tried to figure out what was happening. The convulsions lasted less than a minute. Soon afterwards she clung onto me and fell asleep” (Jeanine Hansen, personal communication, October 13, 2012). The doctor left the room for a while after this discussion and returned with another doctor. That’s when I was told that my two-year-old daughter most likely had a seizure. The doctors then discussed with me that this may be a one-time thing and she may never have another one again. However, they also stated, that I need to watch Cora carefully to make sure that she does not have another one, which would then classify her as Epileptic. If that were the case, then there would have to be more discussion of possible medication and/or tests. At that moment, though, the doctor’s best advice was to go home and continue with normal routines (Freeman, 2002, 73-76).…

    • 1950 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Day I Will Never Forget

    • 1485 Words
    • 6 Pages

    I’ll never forget that day. It was in February that my father told me my older sister might…

    • 1485 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Video Games

    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages

    issues, such as: backaches, headaches, eyestrain, pain and numbness that child may feel in his…

    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays