National Nursing Review : Nursing Study Resources & Health Tips

Residual pressure inside the skull, standard = 10 to 14 mmHg.
In the brain there are 3 compartments (parenchyma, fluid, Vascular), the total volume remains constant and is equal to the sum of the volume of the 3 compartments. The volume is inextensible, the compartments must compensate to maintain values in sustainable standards.

• The parenchymal compartment: Change is slow (dehydration or overhydration = edema), or appearance of a mass: tumor, hematoma
• The fluid compartment: The CSF is produced by the choroid plexus and absorbed in the upper longitudinal sinus. If alteration of this balance, there is a variation of the intra cranial pressure (ICP)

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Epilepsy is a common disease. Its overall prevalence is estimated to be 0.5% of the population, with a maximum risk during childhood, since 50% of epilepsies in fact occur before the age of 10. The etiology of epilepsy remains unexplained in more than 50% of cases.
I – DEFINITION
Epilepsy is a neurological disorder manifested by paroxysms related activity hypersynchronous and abnormal neuronal population. Note:

• There is not no without clinical epilepsy: paroxysmal abnormalities in the EEG without clinical not enough to define epilepsy.
• The paroxysmal nature and its clinical translation are necessarily rough.
• It is stereotypical for each patient depending on the neuronal localization
• The clinical and EEG allow the formulation of a hypothesis when the neuronal localization
• The chronological sequence of symptoms may change during disease

II – THE CLASSIFICATION OF EPILEPSY.
The difference between partial and generalized epilepsy is the concept of neuronal discharge localized or generalized. There are also secondary epilepsy due to a lesion or dysfunction in general.
III – generalized seizures.
A – tonic-clonic generalized
This crisis is manifested by a sudden loss of consciousness without prodrome, with a fall. In its complete form it has a tonic phase of 10 to 20 seconds, during which there is a contraction of all muscles, with a phase flexion and extension of four limbs and trunk, contraction of the masseter. Clonic phase follows an approximately 30 seconds, characterized by sudden twitching of members in bending with clone facial and jaw.
Apnea associated with the phase of tonic contraction causes cyanosis accompanied by autonomic signs (mydriasis, piloerection, hypertension, tachycardia) and secretory phenomena (salivation and tracheo-bronchial congestion). It was also during this phase of tonic-clonic crisis that may occur biting language conventionally side. (more…)

I – The neurological examination
Motor Examination
Evaluation of muscle strength

• Find a motor deficit: failure to maintain the Member ‘in air’
• Barre maneuver: the patient in the prone position, knees bent, and must keep the legs vertical to the upper limbs: horizontal arms, elbows outstretched wrists dorsiflexed maximum, we talk about deficits when the hand is widening.

Assessment of muscle tone
Search for hypo or hypertonia: passive movement of limbs and neck with someone relaxed
Assessment of voluntary movements
Tests of finger-nose, heel-knee puppets exceeded the goal, incoordination (cerebellar syndrome), slowed movement or stiff (piriformis syndrome)
Reflexes (ROT)
Search areflexia or exaggerated muscle contraction: relaxed person, members released the doctor struck with the reflex hammer and the tendon in question observed muscle contraction
Cutaneous plantar reflex (Babinski sign)
When scraping the plant externally using a blunt, there is flexion of the toes, if there is a slow and stately extension of the big toe, speaking of the pyramidal motor path (more…)

The spinal cord is an extension of the medulla oblongata. It has two main functions:

• Route the afferent and efferent between the CNS and the rest of the body
• Treatment of partial information by spinal reflexes.

Embryonic Development:
It develops from the caudal portion of embryonic neural tube. Distinguish a few weeks, two separate parts in the gray matter: the basal plate and alar plate, separated by a furrow, eventually becoming the central canal. As it grows, the blades extend and produce the gray mass of adult marrow. The white outer marrow is formed from neural axons.
Anatomophysiological:
The bone extends from the foramen magnum to the first or second lumbar vertebra. Hence, a filament fiber, fossil embryogenesis, from the meninges, extends to the coccyx, the terminal filum.
31 pairs of spinal nerves exit the spinal cord and innervate the body. She has two bulges, one from which the cervical nerves of upper limbs, forming the brachial plexus, the other from which the lumbar nerves of the lower limbs forming the lumbosacral plexus.
It has a slightly flattened and has two grooves, the median anterior and posterior midline.
Composition of the spinal cord:
Like the brain, spinal consists essentially of “white” and substance “gray”:
The white matter contains the myelinated neurons extensions: It completely surrounds the gray matter which way, is framed into three parts, called posterior, lateral and anterior. These cables, made up of groups of neurons called a type beams carry impulses to a specific destination (beams spinal ascending and descending)
The gray matter contains the bodies of neurons and the neuroglia: It has roughly the shape of an H, the side deck is appointing gray commissure, dug a thin channel called the central canal, extension of the 4th ventricle. The ‘pipes’ of H divide into pairs of posterior and anterior horns. Note that exists in some regions, particularly the chest, lateral horns. (more…)

The nervous system is the integration center and data processing. It is the seat of emotions, thought, conscience. But it also has the task of maintenance of homeostasis. It performs three functions: the receipt and transmission of sensory information, but also integration and response to stimuli.

I – Organization of the nervous system:
It is divided into two main parts: The central nervous system (CNS), comprising the brain and spinal cord and peripheral nervous system (PNS), comprising parts nervous outside the CNS.

• The CNS is the central regulator and integrator of sensory information, from which it develops appropriate motor responses.
• The SNP consists mainly of the nerves, whose main function is to enable the transmission of information and the return of the response prepared by the CNS. Functionally, there are two types of channels: the sensory (or afferent), composed of nerve fibers carrying nerve impulses, and motor or efferent pathways, carrying the response of the CNS. The motor pathways are also divided into the somatic nervous system, also called the voluntary nervous system, because it allows the use of skeletal muscles consciously, and autonomic nervous system, which regulates unconscious (hence independent) activity smooth muscle (heart, digestive system ….). This system also faces two subdivisions, the sympathetic nervous system and parasympathetic, each opposing the other.

II – Histology:
The nervous tissue is very rich in cells, and contains little extracellular space. It is composed of two types of cells, neurons and glial cells. (more…)