What are the symptoms of encephalitis in children? The doctor replied!

If infants and young children suffer from encephalitis, they will initially experience fever, vomiting and headache. Some infants and young children will have diarrhea. As the disease progresses, they will experience coma, convulsions, abnormal behavior and other symptoms. This is an acute infectious disease. Children under ten years old are easily infected and the harm is very great. The following are the many manifestations of pediatric encephalitis.

1. Symptoms

1. Children in the prodromal phase have symptoms such as fever, headache, myalgia, vomiting, and diarrhea.

2. The symptoms of encephalitis vary in severity, mainly manifested as neuropsychiatric abnormalities. Manifestations of neurological abnormalities include fever, headache, vomiting, drowsiness, coma, convulsions, etc. In severe cases, abnormal symptoms may occur in the cerebrum, hypothalamus, basal ganglia, brainstem, cerebellum and spinal cord. Mental abnormalities manifest as excitement, talkativeness, irritability, crying and laughing at random, insomnia, abnormal behavior, hallucinations, fantasies, or indifferent expression, silence, decreased activity, refusal to eat, poor orientation, memory loss, incontinence, etc.

3. Associated symptoms: Symptoms of corresponding viral infection occur before or simultaneously with the onset of encephalitis.

II. Hospitalization

General treatment: Children with encephalitis should be hospitalized. After hospitalization, closely observe changes in consciousness, pay attention to changes in body temperature, pulse, breathing and blood pressure. Pay attention to pupil size at any time. Once changes occur, symptomatic treatment should be carried out. Pay attention to nutrition and calorie supplementation, and comatose patients can be fed through the nose. Frequent convulsions should be intravenously infused, with a daily fluid volume of 50-0ml/kg. When using dehydrating agents, pay attention to supplement potassium salts. Comatose patients should be turned over frequently, keep their skin clean and dry, and prevent bedsores. Keep the mouth clean. Comatose patients who cannot close their eyes should protect their eyes, pay attention to hygiene and protect the cornea. Children with convulsions should prevent tongue bites and prevent the root of the tongue from falling back and blocking the respiratory tract.

3. Symptomatic treatment

1. When the fever is high, the room temperature should be lowered (controlled at 26-28℃). Physical cooling can be performed on the patient, such as alcohol bath, warm water bath or ice pack. Analgin can be used for nasal drops or intramuscular injection of Bupleurum. If the fever persists or is accompanied by convulsions, sub-hibernation therapy can be used (using chlorpromazine and promethazine 0.5-1mg/kg each time, intramuscular injection once every 4-6 hours.

2. Antispasmodics can be used to control convulsions, such as phenobarbital sodium 5-8 mg/(kg.time), intramuscular injection; diazepam 0.1-0.3 mg/(kg.time), intramuscular injection or intravenous injection, but it should not be used immediately after phenobarbital to prevent respiratory depression; chloral hydrate 40 mg/(kg.time), retention enema; paraformaldehyde 0.15-0.2 ml/(kg.time), intramuscular injection, the maximum dose should not exceed 5 ml. The above antispasmodics can be used once every 4-6 hours and rotated. In addition, if the convulsion is caused by cerebral edema, dehydration drugs should be given; if it is caused by respiratory secretion blockage, insufficient ventilation and brain cell hypoxia, sputum suction, oxygen, tracheotomy and pressurized breathing should be performed if necessary; if it is caused by high fever, cooling treatment should be given.

3. Treatment of respiratory failure: First, analyze the cause of respiratory failure and take rescue measures. The airway must be kept open and oxygen must be given. Dehydrating agents, cortical hormones, respiratory stimulants, etc. can be used for patients with respiratory failure due to brain parenchymal inflammation, cerebral edema, and brain herniation.