How to relieve headache from encephalitis

Written by Zhang Hui
Neurology
Updated on September 06, 2024
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Encephalitis is mainly divided into viral encephalitis, bacterial encephalitis, and tubercular meningitis, among others. Encephalitis usually causes patients to experience fever, headache, nausea, and vomiting. The cause of headaches includes the pain response due to inflammation stimulating the meninges. Moreover, these infections can cause an increase in intracranial pressure, leading to significant symptoms in patients such as headache, nausea, and vomiting. To alleviate headaches, it is important to actively treat the primary disease. This includes administering antiviral drugs for viral infections, and antibiotics for bacterial infections. If the headache is caused by increased intracranial pressure, it is crucial to actively administer dehydrating agents and drugs that lower intracranial pressure to reduce it, thereby relieving the headache. Additionally, the use of glucocorticoids can be combined to manage the treatment, suppress the inflammatory response, and alleviate pain. If the pain is significant, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs may also be administered to relieve the pain. The treatment of pain in encephalitis is a comprehensive issue that requires addressing the pathogen, dehydration, reduction of intracranial pressure, and symptomatic treatment.

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Written by Zhang Hui
Neurology
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Symptoms of encephalitis in children

Encephalitis in children is generally caused by viral infections, leading to inflammation that naturally results in symptoms like fever. Thus, fever is the most common symptom of pediatric encephalitis, with some body temperatures reaching extremely high levels, even above 40 degrees Celsius. Additionally, patients also experience significant headaches, nausea, and vomiting due to inflammation or increased intracranial pressure. Furthermore, patients often feel discomfort in the occipital and cervical regions, which is a sign of meningeal irritation. If the encephalitis symptoms are very severe, severely affecting the cerebrospinal fluid, the patient may even experience limb paralysis, epileptic seizures, limb convulsions, and frothing at the mouth. Some patients also suddenly exhibit cognitive dysfunction, becoming dull in response, with noticeable impairment in attention, memory, calculation, and judgment abilities. Some children may exhibit psychological symptoms and must receive timely treatment.

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Written by Li Jiao Yan
Neonatology
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What to do with pediatric encephalitis

If a child develops encephalitis, it is definitely recommended that they be hospitalized for treatment. It is necessary to assess their condition and determine the cause of the encephalitis: is it viral? Bacterial? Or caused by other pathogens? If encephalitis occurs, aggressive treatment is certainly required. In such cases, if the child is discharged from the hospital, they must regularly revisit the hospital for follow-up examinations, and the development of the child's nervous system must be monitored, focusing on motor and cognitive development. Regular assessments at the hospital are definitely required.

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Written by Zhang Hui
Neurology
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Pediatric Encephalitis Examination Items

Encephalitis in children is primarily due to a lowered immune resistance, which leads to infection by certain viruses. These viruses invade the nervous system, causing damage to neurons, resulting in symptoms such as fever, headache, nausea, and vomiting. Generally, the main tests for pediatric encephalitis include hematological tests related to bleeding, primarily involving routine blood tests, C-reactive protein, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate. These indices can reflect the inflammatory conditions inside the patient's body, helping to distinguish between viral and bacterial infections. Another very important auxiliary examination is the electroencephalogram (EEG), where pediatric encephalitis can show mild to moderate abnormalities, which is helpful for accurate diagnosis. The third examination involves performing a lumbar puncture to test the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for the levels of white cells, glucose, and chloride, which are crucial for diagnosing encephalitis and differentiating it from other types of encephalitis.

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Written by Tang Li Li
Neurology
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How is encephalitis diagnosed?

The diagnosis of encephalitis relies on the following aspects. First, it is based on clinical manifestations. If the patient clearly exhibits symptoms such as headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, and signs of increased intracranial pressure, and physical examination shows positive signs of meningeal irritation, then there is a high suspicion of encephalitis. Second, various auxiliary tests can be conducted. Initially non-invasive tests such as electroencephalograms (EEG) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the skull can be completed. If the MRI reveals significant abnormalities, such as abnormal signals in the frontal and temporal lobes including the hippocampus, then viral encephalitis should be highly suspected. If the EEG shows moderate abnormalities or increased slow waves, it also indicates damage to the cerebral cortex, serving as an indirect indicator of encephalitis. Third, a lumbar puncture can be performed to ascertain any abnormalities in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) routine and biochemical tests. If the cell count is elevated beyond ten times the normal value, an inflammatory infection is considered. There is often a minor to moderate increase in protein. The levels of glucose and chloride may decrease in bacterial and tuberculous encephalitis, while they are generally normal in viral encephalitis.

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Written by Zhang Hui
Neurology
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Can encephalitis be cured?

Encephalitis is divided into many types. If it is a simple herpes virus encephalitis infection, this is a rather dangerous type of encephalitis. Before the advent of antiviral drugs, the mortality rate of this type of encephalitis was very high. Now, with improvements in diagnostic and treatment levels and the development of antiviral drugs, the prognosis for this type of encephalitis is generally quite good. As long as the initial condition is not particularly severe, the patient is not in a coma, or there is no obvious continuous epileptic state, the prognosis is still good, and many patients do not have any residual sequelae. However, if the initial condition is quite severe, there is usually some degree of cognitive impairment or weakness in the limbs. Other viral encephalitides, such as those caused by Coxsackie viruses and adenoviruses, tend to have milder symptoms, mainly fever, headache, nausea, and vomiting. These types of encephalitis can mostly be cured with appropriate symptomatic treatment and antiviral therapy.