One of the worst diseases is encephalopathy in children. This pathology can be congenital or develop in the process of life. It represents a brain lesion, which can cause serious complications. The term "Encephalopathy" in medicine refers to a group of diseases of the brain of non-inflammatory origin. This disorder appears for many reasons and is caused by damage to brain cells. The disease develops due to pathological changes in nerve cells as a result of a violation of their blood supply, exposure to toxins or infections, hypoxia.
Problem Description
Encephalopathy in children is a mixed disorder of the brain that is rapidly developing. Pathology is often formed even in the prenatal development of the child at the twenty-eighth week of pregnancy of the woman or a week before childbirth. The disease can occur immediately or after a few years.
When the disease is congenital, perinatal encephalopathy is diagnosed in children. If the doctor manages to detect the first signs of the disease and prescribe effective therapy, in 90% of cases the symptoms of pathology can be stopped, and the risk of complications in the future is reduced to zero.
Also, pathology can develop as a result of brain damage in any age period. In this case, they talk about an acquired disease. It can appear with head injuries, metabolic disorders in the body, radiation and circulatory disorders.
With this disease, the blood supply to the brain is disturbed in children, as a result of which it does not receive enough oxygen. In medicine, brain encephalopathy in children is a common abnormal condition and brain disease that develops due to the death of its nerve cells.
Types of disease
In medicine, it is customary to distinguish the following types of disease depending on traumatic factors:
- Vascular encephalopathy is characterized by abnormal development of blood vessels, as a result of which cerebral blood supply is impaired.
- Discirculatory, in which the outflow of blood is impaired, as a result of which it stagnates in the brain.
- Toxic, which is caused by the effect on the brain cells of various toxins in the disease of newborns, for example, jaundice or hemolytic syndrome. In the latter case, we are talking about bilirubin encephalopathy.
- Epileptic encephalopathy in children occurs due to encephalitis or meningitis, characterized by the occurrence of epileptic seizures.
- Hypertensive, in which neurocytes are damaged due to constantly high pressure, impaired activity of the kidneys and adrenal glands.
- Post-traumatic develops due to damage to the brain, including during labor.
- Wernicke's disease is observed with a lack of B vitamins, because of this brain cells do not receive enough nutrition and die.
- Encephalopathy in children perinatal develops as a result of intrauterine exposure to negative factors on the brain.
- Residual - appears at the age of three due to the influence of negative factors on brain cells.
Causes of the appearance of pathology
The disease most often develops in the prenatal period, but it can also form in older children due to various negative factors. The most common causes are:
- Hereditary predisposition.
- Early pregnancy of a woman, threatened miscarriage or premature birth.
- Prematurity of the child.
- Birth injury.
- Infections and medication during pregnancy.
- Immune system disorders in a child.
- Unspecified encephalopathy in children develops for unknown reasons.
- Infectious diseases in older children, such as rubella.
Risk factors
The negative factors that can trigger the development of encephalopathy include:
- vascular aneurysm, their failure;
- blood diseases, for example, toxoplasmosis, leukemia, high levels of bilirubin;
- infectious and viral diseases, for example, jaundice, hepatitis, flu, pneumonia and others;
- diseases of the internal organs;
- sepsis;
- diabetes in the mother.
The nervous system of children is very tender. When receiving a TBI, the risk of developing complications increases even after effective treatment. Often, encephalopathy develops in children.
Often, pathology develops at once for several reasons. Treatment will depend on what caused the formation of the disease, so the main task of the doctor is to accurately determine the cause of the disease.
Symptoms and signs of the disease
Signs of the disease can be imperceptible or pronounced, so it is important that the child is monitored by a neurologist. The severity of symptoms depends on the location of the organic brain lesion, on its prevalence and the presence of concomitant pathologies. Of great importance is the age of the child, as well as the degree of development of the nervous system.
Typically, brain encephalopathy in children has the following symptoms:
- late cry during childbirth;
- violation of the sucking reflex;
- sleep disturbance, continuous crying;
- heart rhythm disorder;
- muscle tone disorder;
- strabismus and tilting of the head;
- intracranial pressure;
- impaired memory at an early age;
- hyperactivity or lethargy;
- development of neurosis in the form of phobias and panic fear of some objects and environmental phenomena.
With the progression of the disease, all these signs become more pronounced. Children have fainting, intellectual dysfunction, mental retardation.
Signs of pathology depending on its type
Discirculatory and toxic encephalopathy in children manifests symptoms in sleep disturbance, the child cannot fall asleep and cries constantly, he develops pseudo-neurasthenic syndrome. Over time, dizziness, motor coordination disorder, blood pressure disorder, hearing and vision impairment, and epileptic seizures appear. In the absence of treatment, the disease begins to progress, the child is constantly in a state of prostration, he has increased muscle tone, develops VSD, tendon reflexes are disrupted.
With bilirubin encephalopathy , the child has signs of intoxication of the body, loss of appetite, respiratory distress, fever, rolling eyes, in severe cases, the development of cerebral palsy. With the appearance of edema, the brain increases in size, because of which the baby's head also increases.
Complications and consequences
Usually perinatal encephalopathy in children (what it is, described above) can be cured with timely diagnosis and therapy. In the case of extensive brain damage, complications often develop:
- persistent headaches;
- asthenic syndrome;
- epilepsy and hydrocephalus;
- neurosis and depression;
- Cerebral palsy;
- dementia;
- Down syndrome;
- schizophrenia in adulthood;
- diseases of the organs of vision.
Severe consequences
Encephalopathy, which is in children under one year old, is known to many, the disease can have terrible consequences in the form of a lack of nutrition of brain cells. As a result of this, they die, causing a halt to the development of important departments and functions of the body. In mixed type pathology, the development of blockage of the vessels of the brain is possible. In the case of a large lesion, the probability of death is high. The most serious complications in this case are:
- loss of vision;
- aphasia and dysarthria;
- ischemic stroke.
At the first signs of pathology, it is necessary to immediately undergo a course of treatment to prevent the development of complications and cerebral edema.
Diagnostic measures
Perinatal and residual encephalopathy in children, what it is - described in detail in this article, is diagnosed on the basis of the anamnesis and examination of the child, as well as the results of laboratory and instrumental studies. During the examination of the patient, the doctor measures blood pressure, then directs him to laboratory tests of blood and urine, as well as cerebrospinal fluid. To identify the causes of the development of pathology, the child is sent to such diagnostic measures:
- MRI and CT.
- Angiography of the brain.
- Dopplerography and EEG.
- Ultrasound
According to the results of the above studies, the diagnosis of encephalopathy in children is made.
Therapy
Treatment should be started immediately after the first symptoms of the pathology are manifested. Mandatory therapy should include a diet that involves the exclusion of salt, saturated fats, and cholesterol from the diet. It is recommended to use such products that contain a large amount of iodine, vitamins and ascorbic acid. Together with this, parents should provide the child with walks in the fresh air, physiotherapy exercises, massage. Herbal medicine well eliminates the signs of the manifestation of the disease, it is able to minimize the negative effects of pathology. It is possible to use essential oils, for example, chamomile or lavender, as an additional method of therapy.
Drug treatment
Treating encephalopathy in children is a long and complicated process. The main objective of therapy is to eliminate the cause of the development of pathology and restore the affected brain cells as much as possible. The doctor prescribes the following groups of drugs:
- Neuroprotectors to repair damaged brain cells.
- Medicines that are aimed at improving blood circulation and outflow of venous blood.
- Sedatives or tranquilizers to reduce cell ripple.
- Hormonal and vasodilator drugs in the form of injections, for example, Papaverine or No-shpa.
- Medications for migraine and dizziness.
- Vitamin and mineral complexes to improve metabolic processes in nerve cells.
- Medications that eliminate the symptoms of the disease.
- Electrophoresis
The dosage of medicines is selected by the doctor depending on the age of the patient and the degree of symptoms. After passing the first course of therapy, the child is registered with a neurologist, and he should also be examined periodically. The therapy itself can be carried out on an outpatient basis or in a hospital under the constant supervision of physicians. In severe cases, encephalopathy in children requires mechanical ventilation, hemodialysis, or nutrition with a probe. Often, surgical intervention may be required to normalize blood circulation in the brain. In modern medicine, such treatment as stem cell transplantation is practiced. Doctors say that this technique is highly effective.
Together with this child is prescribed massage, exercise therapy, herbal medicine, and after treatment and swimming.
Forecast
The prognosis of the disease is usually favorable with timely initiation of treatment. Most children recover without the consequences and complications of adulthood. In severe cases, the development of irreversible processes that lead to disability is possible. Often in this case, children have a developmental delay, hydrocephalus, VVD, cerebral palsy, schizophrenia, epilepsy. Therefore, it is important to notice the first symptoms of pathology.
Prevention
The methods of prevention include:
- timely treatment of infectious and viral diseases in a pregnant woman or in a newborn child;
- prevention of fetal hypoxia;
- prevention of the effects of toxins on the children's body;
- the exclusion of addictions in a pregnant woman.
To exclude birth injury, the doctor must be careful and accurate, the expectant mother must follow all the recommendations of obstetricians and the doctor during labor. As a child grows up, it is necessary to prevent the occurrence of stressful situations. The child must be trained in safety rules on the street, at home and in child care facilities in order to avoid head injuries. Parents should monitor the health and nutrition of children.
Diagnosing encephalopathy in children is a tragedy for parents. But this disease can be cured, you only need to start treatment as soon as possible. If a pathology is detected immediately after birth, the child has every chance of a full recovery.