Drop attack

Drop attacks are sudden spontaneous falls while standing or walking, followed by a very swift recovery, within seconds or minutes.

See also: Atonic seizure

Causes

Drop attacks are typically seen in elderly patients, and the most common cause is carotid sinus hypersensitivity, resulting in either short periods of reversible asystole, or in marked drop in blood pressure in response to carotid sinus stimulation.

Other causes include the following:

1. vascular - transient ischemic attack, cerebrovascular accident, dissection, occlusion, hemorrhage
   • intracranial hematoma
   • posterior circulation infarction, emboli, vasospasm
   • bilateral anterior circulation occlusion
   • migraine accompagnee - develop over 1hr with assoc paresthesia, HA
   • basilar artery insuff - older pt with no LOC, transient loss of LE tone
2. epilepsy/paroxysmal
   • neurally mediated syncope - 75% of all causes
   • Atonic seizure
   • Lennox-Gastaut syndrome - atonic, myoclonic, GTC typically in neuro abnormal pt
   • Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy - fall with myoclonus
   • cataplexy associated with narcolepsy
   • periodic paralyses
   • complex partial seizure
   • breath holding spells - associate pallor/cyanosis, emotional aspect
   • pure autonomic failure (Riley Day, long standing DM)
   • episodic ataxia
   • Panayiotopoulos syndrome
3. degenerative
   • postural instability with Parkinsons
4. structural
   • chronic odontoid instability
   • spinal cord trauma with transient paraplegia
   • brainstem mass
5. metabolic
   • hypoglycemia, hypocalcemia, Hypomagnesemia
   • toxins, drugs - cocaine, sedatives, antihistamine, TCA
6. cardiac
   • prolonged QT, tachycardia, bradycardia, sick sinus syndrome, arrhythmia, IHSS. AS
   • hypovolemia
7. psychiatric
   • malingering, conversion, panic, anxiety
8. labirynth idropsy: an overflow of endolymph in ear labirynth causes distortions and breaks; see also Ménière's syndrome

Diagnosis

• important if there was an inciting event (NMS, breatholding, postural), any LOC, and presence of postictal pd
• initially get glucose, EKG, pregnancy test, Utox, CT head, lytes
• later consider EEG, echocardiogram, MRI, tilt test

This medical symptom article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Symptoms Symptom stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную? Gant Allan Weisbecker Look at other dictionaries: Drop-attack — [drọpetäk; engl. = Sturzanfall] w; , s: bei bestimmten Durchblutungsstörungen des Gehirns vorkommendes plötzliches Zubodenstürzen ohne Bewußtseinsverlust …   Das Wörterbuch medizinischer Fachausdrücke drop attack — sudden loss of balance without loss of consciousness, usually seen in elderly women; various causes are hypothesized …   Medical dictionary Packet drop attack — In computer networking, a packet drop attack or blackhole attack is a type of denial of service attack accomplished by dropping packets. The attack can be accomplished either selectively (e.g. by dropping packets for a particular network… …   Wikipedia Drop D♭ tuning — Drop D flat tuning. Drop D♭ Tuning, also referred to as Drop C♯ Tuning, is an alternative guitar tuning. It is similar to Drop D tuning, having the lowest (sixth) string dropped down three semitones to Db, with the rest of the strings being tuned …   Wikipedia Attack on Pearl Harbor — Part of the Pacific Theater of World War II …   Wikipedia Drop Zone (film) — Drop Zone Theatrical release poster Directed by John Badham Produced by …   Wikipedia Drop the Dead Donkey — Format Satirical sitcom Created by Andy Hamilton Guy Jenkin …   Wikipedia Drop Mania — Developer(s) Detonium Interactive Publisher(s) Suomen Kotijäätelö Oy …   Wikipedia Drop kick (disambiguation) — Drop kick or dropkick may refer to: drop kick, in various football codes, dropping the ball, and kicking it after it has bounced dropkick, in professional wrestling, an attack where the wrestler jumps up and kicks the opponent with the soles of… …   Wikipedia drop back — {v.} To move or step backwards; retreat. * /The soldiers dropped back before the enemy s attack./ * /The quarterback dropped back to pass the football./ Compare: DRAW BACK, FADE BACK, FALL BACK …   Dictionary of American idioms 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”