THE KINDS OF SEIZURE AND WHERE THEY ARISE IN THE BRAIN: THE MANY TYPES OF SEIZURE
Posted on Mar 16, 2011 under Epilepsy | No CommentSince episodic electrical events can occur in different areas of the brain, the types of seizures that they produce will differ depending on what area is affected.
You heard a loud noise and ran to Johnny’s room. Your son was stiff, his back was arched, he didn’t seem to be breathing and he was turning blue. Then he started shaking violently, and he was foaming at the mouth. Your first thought was that he was about to die!
Mary was sitting with you at the dinner table when suddenly she stopped eating and stared into space. You called her, but she didn’t respond, and you had to call her several times. “Why does she daydream so often?” you wondered.
William comes running to you with a frightened look on his face. He is pale and then has a glassy look to his eyes. You call him, but he doesn’t respond. You notice that he is smacking his lips and fumbling with his clothes. Then as you hold him, he stiffens and begins to shake violently.
Trina began to have jerking at the corner of her mouth. “It’s just a habit,” your doctor said, but it’s gotten worse. Now the jerking is there all the time and sometimes it spreads to involve the whole side of her face.
All of these are seizures, and yet each differs. Each may require a different evaluation by your physician. Each may require different medication. Each may have a different outcome. The type of seizure depends largely on where in the brain it starts and on the direction and speed of the spread of the electrical activity.
Seizures are divided into two major groups, “partial seizures” and “generalized seizures.” “Partial seizures” (simple or complex), those that begin focally—that is, in one place—-are also called “focal” or “local” seizures. It is important to identify partial seizures because, since they begin focally, there may well be a specific problem in that area of the brain, one that may need special attention. The physician looks for a scar, a tangle of blood vessels, or a tumor as the cause of such seizures. If focal seizures cannot be controlled with medication, then surgery can be considered. “Generalized seizures,” on the other hand, seem to start all over the brain at once. We are unable to detect either by clinical signs or symptoms, and sometimes not even from the EEG, where this widespread electrical activity begins.
*53\208\8*
