Childhood emergencies due to unconsciousness

General information

It can also lead to unconsciousness (childhood emergencies) in children without an accident or fall having occurred. It is therefore important to rule out a previous accident at the beginning of the treatment. The more precise and detailed the description, usually by the parents, the faster and more targeted the treatment can be.

Unconsciousness always represents an absolute emergency. In childhood, especially meningitis in advanced stages can cause unconsciousness. In addition, seizures (epilepsy) or metabolic disorders, such as hypoglycaemia (hypoglycaemia) or a too low sodium content in the blood (hyponatremia) as well as a coma due to hypoglycaemia (ketoacidotic coma). In addition, the consideration of a poisoning causing unconsciousness should always be considered.

Diagnosis

In addition to the parent survey, the quickest possible action must be taken in case of unconsciousness. Blood tests can provide information about inflammatory processes, and computer tomography (CT) can diagnose bleeding, tumors and craniocerebral trauma. A quick and important examination method is blood glucose testing, which can reveal a metabolically related cause of unconsciousness within a few seconds.

Therapy

In many cases an infusion solution with sugar is enough to make the unconsciousness disappear. The main purpose of the parental interview is to find out the beginning of unconsciousness, whether it started with vomiting, seizures or clouding together and whether there have been seizures or unconsciousness in the past.