NewYork-Presbyterian. The University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell.

Epilepsy

About 10 percent of all people, approximately eight million Americans, may experience a seizure during their lifetimes. However, only three percent of the population has recurrent seizures, or epilepsy, or seizure disorder.

About 10 percent of all people, approximately eight million Americans, may experience a seizure during their lifetimes. However, only three percent of the population has recurrent seizures, or epilepsy.

Causes

Sometimes, a clear cause of epilepsy can be identified. A common cause of epilepsy is head injury due to an automobile accident or gunshot wound, and other causes include stroke, infection, poisoning, and brain tumors. In some cases, epilepsy is genetic. Several types of epilepsy, such as temporal lobe epilepsy, can be cured with surgery, while other types are best treated with medication.

Symptoms

Epilepsy can cause a variety of symptoms such as strange sensations, changes in behavior or emotions, muscle spasms, convulsions, and a sudden loss of awareness or consciousness.

Diagnosis

Sophisticated diagnostic techniques, such an encephalograms (EEGs), video-EEG telemetry, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and functional MRI, are used to assess epilepsy.

Generalized epilepsy: Because these seizures are generalized and have no clear initiation point, they often cannot be cured with surgery, but still can be treated with surgery, such as vagal nerve stimulation and corpus callosotomy, that alleviates symptoms. Some patients, particularly those with idiopathic generalized seizures, will respond well to anticonvulsant medication.

Partial epilepsy: Partial epilepsy often is amenable to surgery because the cause of the seizures can be isolated and treated or removed. Often defined by their point of origin, partial epilepsy includes frontal lobe epilepsy, occipital lobe epilepsy, mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, and parietal lobe epilepsy.