seizure
Sign in to saveA seizure is a sudden disruption of brain activity caused by excessive, synchronized neuronal firing that results in changes in behavior. This neurological condition is common, affecting approximately 50 million individuals around the world.
Key facts
- Medical condition.name
- Seizure
- Medical condition.synonyms
- Epileptic fit, epileptic seizure, fit, convulsions
- Medical condition.image
- Spike-waves.png
- Medical condition.caption
- Generalized 3 Hz spike and wave discharges in an electroencephalogram (EEG) of a patient with epilepsy
- Medical condition.field
- Neurology, emergency medicine
- Medical condition.symptoms
- Variable
- Medical condition.duration
- Typically less than 2 minutes
- Medical condition.causes
- Provoked: Low blood sugar, alcohol withdrawal, low blood sodium, fever, brain infection, traumatic brain injury Unprovoked: Flashing lights or colors, unknown causes, previous stroke, brain injury, brain tumor
- Medical condition.diagnosis
- Based on symptoms, blood tests, medical imaging, electroencephalography
- Medical condition.differential
- Syncope, psychogenic seizure, migraine aura, transient ischemic attack
- Medical condition.treatment
- Less than 5 min: Place person on their side, remove nearby dangerous objects More than 5 min: Treat as status epilepticus
- Medical condition.frequency
- ≈10% of people (lifetime risk)
- Medical condition.complications
- Falling, drowning, car accidents, pregnancy complications, emotional health issues
- Medical condition.types
- Focal, generalized; provoked, unprovoked
via Wikipedia infobox
Research
194,249 papers- Seizure cluster: Definition, prevalence, consequences, and management.Seizure · 2019
- Motor seizure semiology.Handbook of clinical neurology · 2023
- Seizure Detection, Prediction, and Forecasting.Journal of clinical neurophysiology : official publication of the American Electroencephalographic Society · 2024
- Update on first unprovoked seizure in children and adults: A narrative review.Seizure · 2021
- Semiological seizure classification.Epilepsia · 1998
via PubMed
Article
34 sectionsContents
- Clinical features
- Classification
- Focal seizures
- Generalized seizures
- Unknown (whether focal or generalized) seizures
- Unclassified seizures
- Causes
- Provoked seizures
- Unprovoked seizures
- Mechanism
- Clinical evaluation
- Clinical history
- Physical examination
- Laboratory tests
- Electroencephalography (EEG)
- Neuroimaging
- Differential diagnosis
- Cincinnati method
- Management
- First aid during a seizure
- Emergency medical treatment
- Management of provoked seizures
- Management after unprovoked seizures
- Long-term management of epilepsy
- Diet
- Other
- Prognosis
- Epidemiology
- History
- Society and culture
- Economics
- Research
- References
- External links
A seizure is a sudden disruption of brain activity caused by excessive, synchronized neuronal firing that results in changes in behavior. This neurological condition is common, affecting approximately 50 million individuals around the world.
Depending on the regions of the brain involved, seizures can lead to changes in movement, sensation, behavior, awareness, or consciousness. Symptoms vary widely. Some seizures involve subtle changes, such as brief lapses in attention or awareness (as seen in absence seizures), while others cause generalized convulsions with loss of consciousness (tonic–clonic seizures). Most seizures last less than two minutes and are followed by a postictal period of confusion, fatigue, or other symptoms. Status epilepticus is a medical emergency consisting of a seizure that lasts longer than five minutes, or multiple seizures without full recovery between episodes.