What the Physician Reviewer Should Know about Epilepsy

Overview

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurologic disease nowadays. There have been huge advances in the understanding ofpathophysiology of epilepsy and in diagnosis and treatment of epileptic disorders in the course of the last 20 years. Epileptologyhas become an independent field in neurology. Nowadays, there are departments and centres in western Europe, the USA,Canada and Australia, which specialize only in care of patients with epilepsy. Centres for epilepsy have been established alsoin the Czech Republic. Epilepsy as a chronic disease influences many aspects of the life of epileptic patients. The complex carewhich deals not only with health problems but also mental and social difficulties prevalent in people with epilepsy is of a currenttrend. There are several common situations, when a neurologist and a physician reviewer meet. Mutual communication is oneof the most important preconditions for preventing misunderstanding and mistakes. In this article, I would like to provide basicinformation on the current epileptologic terminology and the system of categorizing epilepsy according to the degree ofcompensation of an epileptic disease.

Key words:
epilepsy – epileptology – epileptic seizures