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Chapter 7 - Accidents and Injuries during Seizures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 August 2021

By
Simona Lattanzi  and
Vincenzo Belcastro
Edited by
Marco Mula
Marco Mula
Affiliation:
St George's Hospital Medical School, University of London
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Summary

Epilepsy that develops following traumatic brain injury (TBI) significantly increases the risk for disability in patients with epilepsy. The house, street and workplace are the leading sites where accidents and injuries occur in patients with epilepsy. Some of the accidents and injuries may be the consequence of seizures themselves, as for example shoulder dislocation during a tonic-clonic seizure or tongue biting . Seizure-related injuries have been classified into burns, head trauma, dental traumas, fractures, major body injuries, penetrating traumas, road injuries, and drowning. Noteworthy, a patient could have one or more injuries at different body locations during a seizure or multiple injuries with different seizures.

Comorbid conditions and concurrent handicaps, neurological and cognitive deficits, behavioral and psychiatric disorders as well as side effects of antiepileptic medications, like drowsiness, ataxia, blurred vision, and diplopia, may be present in patients with epilepsy and act as independent putative causes of accidents and injuries.

Accidents and injuries that occur during seizures may require hospitalization, cause disability, influence the ability to drive and restrict driving license, increase lost work productivity and indirect costs, decrease self-esteem, contribute to social stigmatization and, hence, affect the overall quality of life in patients with epilepsy.

Keywords

post traumatic epilepsymotor vehicle accidentssymptomatic seizureshead traumaepileptogenesis
Type
Chapter
Information
Post-traumatic Epilepsy , pp. 97 - 103
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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