What is the ictal phase?
The middle of a seizure is often called the ictal phase. It’s the period of time from the first symptoms (including an aura) to the end of the seizure activity, This correlates with the electrical seizure activity in the brain. Sometimes the visible symptoms last longer than the seizure activity on an EEG.
What is ictal spitting?
Ictal spitting occurred between 10 to 25 seconds after electrographic seizure onset in the majority of cases. It is possible that ictal spitting is an automatic behavior similar to lip smacking, swallowing, and chewing movements frequently seen in temporal lobe seizures.
What is the difference between ictal and interictal?
Epileptiform EEG activity has been categorized as ictal, meaning during a seizure, postictal, meaning after a seizure and interictal, meaning between seizures.
How long is the Postictal phase?
The postictal state is a period that begins when a seizure subsides and ends when the patient returns to baseline. It typically lasts between 5 and 30 minutes and is characterized by disorienting symptoms such as confusion, drowsiness, hypertension, headache, nausea, etc.
What does ictal mean in medical terms?
Ictal is defined as the period of a seizure and interictal refers to the period between seizures.2. From: Therapy in Sleep Medicine, 2012.
What happens during the ictal phase of seizure?
During the ictal phase of a seizure, brain waves are somewhat erratic and disorganized. 3 This erratic activity affects the whole brain during the ictal phase of a generalized seizure, and it affects a localized region of the brain during the ictal phase of a partial seizure.
What is an aura seizure?
An ‘aura’ is the term that some people use to describe the warning they feel before they have a tonic clonic seizure. An epilepsy ‘aura’ is in fact a focal aware seizure. Focal aware seizures (FAS) are sometimes called ‘warnings’ or ‘auras’ because, for some people, a FAS develops into another type of seizure.
What is LGS syndrome?
Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS) is a type of epilepsy. Patients with LGS experience many different types of seizures including: Tonic – stiffening of the body. Atonic – temporary loss of muscle tone and consciousness, causing the patient to fall.
What is ictal interictal continuum?
The ictal-interictal continuum (IIC) is characterized by periodic and/or rhythmic EEG patterns that occur with relative high frequency in critically ill patients. Several studies have reported that some patterns seen within the continuum are independently associated with poor outcome.
What can I do for my postictal period?
Most patients with postictal delirium do not require specific treatments, but simply need to be protected as their postictal confusion resolves. Patients need supportive care to avoid injuries; for example, windows should be closed and dangerous objects removed; bedrails with padding can be raised around the patient.
What is postictal aphasia?
Patients suffering from drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy show substantial language deficits (i.e., anomia) during their seizures and in the postictal period (postictal aphasia). Verbal impairments observed during the. postictal period may be studied to help localizing the epileptogenic zone.
