Posttraumatic seizures - prevention or not.

Early posttraumatic epilepsies (EPTE) are epileptic attacks that appear in first seven days after brain injury, with incidence of 3-5%. Predictors for development of EPTE are: impressive skull fracture with rupture of dura, intracranial haemorrhage, neurogical deficit (brain contusion), and posttraumatic amnesia longer than 24 hours. It is more common in children than in adolescents and adults.

[Paroxysmal psychological disorders--a diagnostic trap].

Unlabelled: Paroxismatic psychical disorders, as attacks of panic and anxiety, de-realization, de-personalization, false reconescense phenomena and other are, represent the diagnostic problem. The possibility of mistake is significant, and wrong diagnosis has medical and social implications. The aim was to point out the methodology of the work with these patients.

[Efficacy and tolerability of carbamazepine as the initial drug used in the treatment of epilepsy].

Carbamazepine is the one of the most prescribed antiepileptic drugs in treatment of partial and generalized tonic-clonic seizures. Its efficacy in treatment of seizures was discovered incidentally during the trials of neuroleptic drugs. Generally it is well tolerated with relatively rare serious side effects.

[Ultrasound differentiation between benign enlargement of the subarachnoid space and brain atrophy].

Fluid collections surrounding the brain (pericerebral fluid collections) in infants can be caused by a variety of conditions: benign enlargement of the subarachnoid space, passive dilatation of the subarachnoid space due to brain atrophy, subdural hygroma and subdural effusion as a result of meningitis or subdural haematoma. An enlarged frontal subarachnoid space and normal or minimally enlarged ventricular size, with normal or increase head circumference is relatively common finding in infancy. Without associated brain anomalies, this finding predicts normal development of the child.

[A modified approach to the diagnosis and therapy of epileptic seizures in the third stage of life].

Unlabelled: Incidence of seizures in the elderly is nowadays greater than the one characteristic for children up to 10 years of age. Epileptic seizures are the third most common serious neurological disorder in this age group, after stroke and dementia. Optimal care for those patients, regarding to the seizures, demands some modification in diagnostic and treatment approach.