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Encephalopathy

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Medical Author:

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Dr. Charles "Pat" Davis, MD, PhD, is a board certified Emergency Medicine doctor who currently practices as a consultant and staff member for hospitals. He has a PhD in Microbiology (UT at Austin), and the MD (Univ. Texas Medical Branch, Galveston). He is a Clinical Professor (retired) in the Division of Emergency Medicine, UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, and has been the Chief of Emergency Medicine at UT Medical Branch and at UTHSCSA with over 250 publications.

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Medical Editor:

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, is a U.S. board-certified Anatomic Pathologist with subspecialty training in the fields of Experimental and Molecular Pathology. Dr. Stöppler's educational background includes a BA with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia and an MD from the University of North Carolina. She completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Georgetown University followed by subspecialty fellowship training in molecular diagnostics and experimental pathology.

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What is encephalopathy?

Encephalopathy is a term that means brain disease, damage, or malfunction. Encephalopathy can present a very broad spectrum of symptoms that range from mild, such as some memory loss or subtle personality changes, to severe, such as dementia, seizures, coma, or death. In general, encephalopathy is manifested by an altered mental state that is sometimes accompanied by physical manifestations (for example, poor coordination of limb movements).

The term encephalopathy is very broad and in most cases, is preceded by various terms that describe the reason, cause, or special conditions of the patient that leads to brain malfunction. For example, anoxic encephalopathy means brain damage due to lack of oxygen, and hepatic encephalopathy means brain malfunction due to liver disease. Additionally, some other terms either describe body conditions or syndromes that lead to a specific set of brain malfunctions. Examples of these are metabolic encephalopathy and Wernicke's encephalopathy (Wernicke's syndrome). There are over 150 different terms that modify or precede "encephalopathy" in the medical literature.

What causes encephalopathy?

The causes of encephalopathy are both numerous and varied.

Some examples of causes of encephalopathy include:

• infections (bacteria, viruses, parasites, or prions),
  
  
• anoxia (lack of oxygen to the brain),
  
  
• alcohol consumption,
  
  
• liver failure,
  
  
• kidney failure,
  
  
• metabolic diseases,
  
  
• brain tumors,
  
  
• many types of toxic chemicals,
  
  
• alterations in pressure in the brain, and
  
  
• poor nutrition.

These examples do not cover all of the potential causes of encephalopathy but are listed to demonstrate the wide range of causes.

Although numerous causes of encephalopathy are known, the majority of cases arise from several major categories:

1. infection,
   
   
2. liver damage,
   
   
3. anoxia, and
   
   
4. kidney failure.