INDS 212 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Reflex Syncope, Reticular Formation, Aortic Stenosis
4 Jan 2019
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What is a loss of consciousness: loss of arousal, awareness, and responsiveness. Inferred from behavior and response to stimuli: requires either damage/dysfunction of both cerebral hemispheres or the reticular activating system in the brainstem; which is where our consciousness starts. Definition of syncope: transient, self-limited loc caused by global cerebral hypo-perfusion, usually either orthostatic (i. e when someone stands up they lose consciousness) or neurally-mediated. Other examples include cough and swallow syncope: orthostatic syncope is obviously usually situational as well. The diagnosis is based on the clinical history: good description from patient and witnesses: video in your head , imagine yourself as a witness , the more features of syncope, the more likely it is syncope. Again, think of a video : when, where, what, state of the patient, prodrome (symptoms preceding loc, what happened (fall, injury, convulsion, after (recovery, confusion, recall)
