Post-traumatic epilepsy is a condition where seizures occur regularly after a head injury, with risk factors including skull fractures, severe concussion, and intracranial hematoma. The cause is still being studied, but brain imaging can help determine treatment. Seizures can be temporary or permanent, and can occur years after the initial injury. Medical intervention can help stop seizures, and certain demographics are more prone to this condition.
Post-traumatic epilepsy is a condition characterized by seizures that occur regularly after an impact to the head from a fall, accident, or blow to the skull. Penetration of bullets and other objects into the skull can also induce this form of epilepsy. The risk of post-traumatic epilepsy is particularly high if the skull is fractured, there is a severe concussion, or there is an intracranial hematoma, which is the collection of blood inside the skull after a vein or leg rupture. ‘artery. Victims who experience more than a day of amnesia or unconsciousness due to a head injury are also at risk of having post-injury epilepsy.
Doctors continue to search for the cause of post-traumatic epilepsy; some studies suggest it is linked to free radical damage caused by brain injury. Other studies suggest that genetics play a role in who develops recurring seizures after trauma. Since seizures are seizures caused by damage to brain tissue, any impact that causes depressions in the soft tissue of the brain can create a risk of post-traumatic epilepsy. The same goes for the surgical removal of damaged brain tissue as a result of injury.
Computed tomography (CT) scans help doctors determine how severe a brain injury is and exactly what physical, biochemical, or mechanical changes have occurred. Often blood flow to the brain is impeded or there are changes in the brain’s metabolism. The balance in the brain can also be disrupted by injury, creating stress on the sympathetic or parasympathetic nervous system and putting the victim at risk for post-traumatic epilepsy due to altered brain signals. Doctors can study brain imaging to determine whether posttraumatic seizures are likely and what surgery or treatment should be done.
Seizures resulting from post-traumatic epilepsy can be temporary or permanent. Some brain injury victims experience immediate seizures, which come on within a few hours and recur over a few days or weeks. Others, however, may experience seizures for five years or more.
Even if the seizures don’t start immediately, that doesn’t mean the victim has escaped PTSD. Doctors warn that some individuals with latent posttraumatic epilepsy can go from two to 15 years without symptoms before having their first episode of injury-related seizures. The seizures themselves are unlikely to cause further brain injury, say the researchers.
Stopping seizures is possible with medical intervention. In some cases, post-traumatic seizures stop on their own. While this form of epilepsy can affect anyone, some demographics have been particularly prone, such as construction workers and war veterans who have sustained combat brain injuries.
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