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On average 40 out of every 100 thousand ticos suffers from epilepsy.
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San José, Costa Rica. May, 2015.
The majority of the cases of epilepsy have a genetic factor, however, there are cases that are not necessarily of this kind and the person may begin to have partial crises that later become more generalized.
In the world, close to 50 million people suffer from epilepsy. Epilepsy is a chronic disease that is characterized by recurrent episodes of convulsive crises, characterized by episodes of alteration of the brain activity, which produces changes in the attention or behavior of the person or sudden and involuntary muscular movements.
According to Dr. Luis Guillermo Rosales Bravo, Neurologist of the Clínica Bíblica Hospital, “the periodicity of the convulsive crises depends on the patient and the context where he develops. It is important to clarify that one sole convulsion that is not recurrent, is not necessarily epilepsy. In the country, the most common cases are those of the partial kind, however, some partial convulsions may generalize over time,” indicated the physician.
Once the person is diagnosed with epilepsy, the episodes that are experienced will depend on the lifestyle and on the conditions to which the patient is exposed, for example, the main detonators of epileptic crises are: not taking the anti-epileptic treatment, be submitted to a lot of stress, sleeping badly, breathing very rapidly and even menstruation itself.
In Costa Rica, the incidence of death by epilepsy has been minimal. The majority of the patients have an adequate treatment and the few cases that have been reported have been due to sudden death at night while the patient is sleeping.
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Epilepsy may occur at any stage of life, however, the persons who are most likely to suffer from this are children and senior adults.
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Treatment:
The majority of treatments with oral drugs known as anti-epileptic (ex. phenytoin, valproic acid, carbamazepine, etc.) in capsules or liquids of a different kind. 70% of the patients are controlled with these medications. There is a small group of patients who receive a brain pacemaker to block the electric discharges and other very special cases that require surgery for epilepsy, but these are the least common ones.
According to Rosales, it is always important that the person informs his/her workplace or friends about his/her disease, so that in case he/she has a crisis in public, those around him/her can help him/her in the best way.
For further information or for requesting medical attention, please call the number 2522-1000, or write to the email citas@clinicabiblica.com or contact us via chat at the website: www.clinicabiblica.com.
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Clínica Bíblica Hospital
