What is the cause of acute convulsions in children?

Infantile convulsions are a common disease in children, also known as "convulsions" or "seizures", which are generally manifested by convulsions and coma. It is more common in children aged 1-5 years old. Generally, rescue measures should be taken immediately when children have acute convulsions, otherwise it will affect the child's life. There are many causes of acute convulsions in children, the most common ones are epilepsy, drug poisoning, etc. So, what are the other causes of acute convulsions in children?

Etiology and pathogenesis

The causes of acute convulsions are mainly due to the six external pathogens and epidemic toxins, occasionally caused by sudden fright.

The six external evils can all cause convulsions. The main pathogens are wind evil, heat evil, damp heat and epidemic diseases. Children have thin skin and loose pores, so they are easily affected by pathogenic factors. The pathogenic factors enter the body from the outside to the inside, causing severe fever. The extreme heat turns into fire, and the excessive fire produces phlegm. In severe cases, the pathogenic factors enter the body's blood and penetrate into the pericardium, causing liver wind, resulting in high fever, coma, convulsions, rashes, vomiting, and nosebleeds. Or, the healthy qi cannot overcome the pathogenic factors, causing internal blockage and external loss of function. If due to improper diet, or accidentally ingesting contaminated and toxic food, the intestine and stomach will be blocked, phlegm and heat will be accumulated inside, and the blockage will not be eliminated, the Qi flow will be unfavorable, and the depression will turn into fire. Phlegm, fire, dampness and turbidity obscure the pericardium and induce liver wind, which can cause high fever, fainting, convulsions, vomiting, abdominal pain, and foul-smelling diarrhea.

Children are timid and have insufficient vitality. They cannot tolerate unexpected stimulation. If their eyes touch foreign objects, hear loud noises, or they fall accidentally and are suddenly frightened, their spirit will be disturbed, liver wind will move inside, and they will scream, jump, convulse and become unconscious.

In short, the main pathogenesis of acute convulsions is the mutual influence of heat, phlegm, convulsion and wind, which are mutually causal. The main disease sites are the heart and liver meridians. When children are infected by external pathogens, they are easily transformed into heat. Excessive heat will cause phlegm, extreme heat will cause wind, excessive phlegm will cause convulsions, and excessive convulsions will cause wind, which will cause acute convulsions.

Etiology, classification and characteristics of pediatric convulsions in Western medicine

1 Infectious causes

(1) Intracranial infection: such as meningitis or encephalitis caused by bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi. It often manifests as repeated and severe seizures, which mostly occur in the early or extreme stages of the disease. Accompanied by varying degrees of impaired consciousness and increased intracranial pressure. Cerebrospinal fluid examination is very helpful for diagnosis and differential diagnosis.

(2) Extracranial infection: Seizures caused by non-intracranial infectious diseases.

1) Febrile seizure: It is the most common acute seizure in pediatrics.

2) Infectious toxic encephalopathy: It is mostly complicated by serious bacterial infectious diseases such as sepsis, severe pneumonia, bacillary dysentery, whooping cough, etc., and is related to acute cerebral edema caused by infection and bacterial toxins.

2 Non-infectious causes

(1) Intracranial diseases:

1) Craniocerebral injury and hemorrhage: intracranial hemorrhage caused by various reasons such as birth trauma, craniocerebral trauma and cerebral vascular malformation. The disease occurs immediately after injury, with repeated convulsions accompanied by impaired consciousness and increased intracranial pressure. Brain CT is of great value in diagnosis.

2) Congenital developmental malformations: such as abnormal cranial and cerebral development, hydrocephalus, neurocutaneous syndrome, etc.

3) Intracranial space-occupying lesions: such as supratentorial tumors, cysts or hematomas in the cerebral hemispheres.

(2) Extracranial (systemic) diseases

1) Hypoxic-ischemic diseases: such as asphyxia during childbirth or after birth, drowning, severe cardiopulmonary diseases, etc.

2) Metabolic diseases: including: ① water and electrolyte disorders ② liver and kidney failure and Reye syndrome ③ genetic metabolic diseases ④ poisoning

Clinical diagnosis

1. The disease occurs suddenly with high fever, coma, convulsions, gurgling sound in the throat, eyes rolling up, staring, or squinting, which can last from a few seconds to several minutes. In severe cases, the disease may recur or even persist, threatening life.

2. There may be a history of contact with infectious patients or unclean diet.

3. Children with central nervous system infection may have abnormal changes in cerebrospinal fluid examination and pathological reflexes in neurological examination.

4. In bacterial infectious diseases, white blood cell and neutrophil counts are often increased in routine blood tests.

5. If necessary, routine stool examination, stool bacterial culture, blood culture, chest X-ray, cerebrospinal fluid and other related examinations can be performed.

The above is an introduction to the causes of acute convulsions in children. It can be seen that there are many reasons that lead to this disease, so parents should pay attention to protecting their children’s head health, correct their children’s bad living habits, and avoid acute convulsions. If a sudden convulsion occurs, the child must be rushed to the hospital immediately for emergency treatment to avoid delaying the rescue time and endangering the child's life and health.