El-Radhi A Sahib
Consultant Paediatrician and Honorary Senior Lecturer, Chelsfield Park Hospital, Orpington.
Br J Nurs. 2015;24(3):152-5. doi: 10.12968/bjon.2015.24.3.152.
Seizures are common events in children and up to 10% of all children experience at least one seizure during their childhood. They can be triggered by many conditions such as fever, medications or injury. Febrile seizures are the most common types of seizures, affecting 3-4% of children. While epilepsy is typically recurrent and unprovoked, a single, isolated seizure is not epilepsy. Taking a detailed history of the seizure description helps establish the diagnosis. A video recording of the event can also support the diagnosis and rule out non-epileptic seizures that resemble seizures, such as pseudo-seizure. Seeing a child having a seizure, particularly if it is the first one, is usually frightening and distressing for the parents. First seizure should always be evaluated by health professionals because of a possible serious underlying cause. If the seizure occurs at home, the child should be placed in the recovery side position to prevent the swallowing of any vomit. The care of a child who does have epilepsy is best achieved by a community or hospital epilepsy specialist nurse. These nurses play a pivotal role in providing a close link between the epileptic children and their families. Such a nurse is also in an ideal position to establish a link between the doctor and affected families, offering valuable advice and support, and visiting the epileptic child at home.
癫痫发作在儿童中很常见，多达10%的儿童在童年时期至少经历过一次癫痫发作。它们可能由多种情况引发，如发烧、药物或受伤。热性惊厥是最常见的癫痫发作类型，影响3%-4%的儿童。虽然癫痫通常是反复发作且无诱因的，但单次孤立发作并非癫痫。详细记录癫痫发作的描述有助于确诊。事件的视频记录也有助于诊断，并排除类似癫痫发作的非癫痫性发作，如假性发作。看到孩子癫痫发作，尤其是第一次发作时，对父母来说通常是令人恐惧和痛苦的。由于可能存在严重的潜在病因，首次癫痫发作应由健康专业人员进行评估。如果癫痫发作发生在家里，应将孩子置于恢复侧卧位，以防止呕吐物被吞咽。患有癫痫的儿童最好由社区或医院的癫痫专科护士进行护理。这些护士在癫痫儿童及其家庭之间建立紧密联系方面发挥着关键作用。这样的护士也处于在医生和受影响家庭之间建立联系的理想位置，提供宝贵的建议和支持，并到癫痫儿童家中探访。
