Epilepsy in Children

Epilepsy in Children

Schuyler Wilson

Nursing Care Through the Lifespan III

June 28, 2005

Epilepsy is the name for a condition of recurrent seizures where no

underlying cause can be determined. Seizures occur as a result of abrupt, explosive, unorganized discharges of cerebral neurons. This causes a sudden alteration in brain function involving sensory, motor, autonomic and/or psychic clinical manifestations.

Epilepsy can be a result of other conditions including:

§ Genetic predisposition

§ Brain tumor

§ Injury, trauma

§ Infection

§ Fever

§ Alcohol or drug use

§ Congenital malformation

as well as many others.

Many different things such as fatigue, stress, environmental factors such as strobe lights, TV, loud noises, and even some music may trigger seizures. (Heuthers,363)

There are many different types of seizures. These fall into three broad categories: Generalized, partial, and unclassified seizures. Generalized seizures involve both hemispheres of the brain. There are six different types of generalized seizures.

Tonic-Clonic: begin with tonic phase which includes stiffening of the muscles usually in the arms and legs and loss of consciousness. The clonic phase includes a rhythmic jerking movement of the extremities. Incontinence of urine and feces may occur. A period of confusion, and fatigue may last up to an hour following this type of seizure.

Absence: these seizures tend to run in families and are more common in children. They are characterized by moments (seconds to minutes) of loss of consciousness and staring that looks much like the child is daydreaming. When these seizures are the only ones the child presents with they are at a risk of being thought to have Attention Deficit Disorder and not receive the treatment they really need.

Myoclonic: these are characterized by brief contracting of muscle groups in the extremities. These episodes are seen more often in school-aged children and adolescents than in young children.

Atonic: a sudden loss of muscle tone followed by a period of confusion. These seizures often lead to a all possibly causing injury to the child.

Partial seizures are also sometimes called local or focal seizures. They take place in one hemisphere of the brain. There are two subcategories of partial seizures including simple partial and complex partial.

Simple partial: seizures do not cause a loss of consciousness. During a simple partial seizure the person will experience motor, sensory or autonomic symptoms such as abdominal discomfort, strange tastes in their mouth, and an increase in heart rate.

Complex partial: often cause the patient to loose consciousness for one to three minutes. During this time symptoms such as lip smacking, hallucinations, chewing or teeth grinding will occur. A period of confusion will also follow this type of seizure.

Unclassified seizures are seizures with no apparent cause and do not fall into the generalized or partial categories. Unclassified seizures account for about half of all seizure activity. (Ignataicius, 950; JAD, 971; Benbadis,1)

Treatment for epilepsy is often focused on controlling the seizures with the least amount of medication as possible. Antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) are the class used to accomplish this. Some of the AEDs that are used most often are Clonazepam, Diazepam, Divalproex, Gabapentin, and Phenytoin. The most common side effects of these medications include nausea, vomiting, sedation, fatigue, and lethargy. (Kwan,1; Benbadis, 3-5; Huethers,637)

Nursing interventions used when caring for a child with epilepsy are:

§ Make sure AEDs are administered as scheduled

§ Monitor for side effects of AEDs and report to doctor

§ Place patient in seizure precautions

§ Do not put anything