Epilepsia: generalidades sobre las crisis epilépticas y la epilepsia

Abstract

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological diseases in the world. It is calculated that 8% of the general population will have an epileptic seizure in their lifetime while 0.8%–1.7% will develop epilepsy. Therefore, given this disease's enormous importance in the daily clinical practice of both neurologists and general medicine physicians, in this update, we are going to focus on laying the foundations of basic knowledge to be able to manage it correctly. First, we will define basic concepts such as what a seizure is and what the disease of epilepsy is, broadly describing the pathogenic and pathophysiological process underlying an epileptic seizure. After reviewing these basic concepts, we will learn the classification of seizures and different types of epilepsy as well as etiologies that can cause them. To finish, we will broadly describe the epidemiology of this disorder that is so prevalent in our setting.