Paliatívna medicína a liečba bolesti 1/2009

Management of epilepsy in patients in palliative care

Epilepsy in palliative care is more frequent at patients with primary or secondary cerebral tumours. With lesser frequency the symptom exists in some non-oncological palliative diseases – for example vegetative state. Management of epilepsy in palliative care follows from the disease stage, aims of the care and of course primary etiology – unfortunately we have no sufficient evidence based medicine in this area. The article tries to term – on principles of specialized palliative care – diagnostic and treatment procedures, using accessible literature and clinical experience.

Keywords: epilepsy, palliative medicine, cerebral tumors, vegetative state, antiepileptics.