**Abstract**

Medical doctors are very frequently confronted with gastrointestinal complaints in daily clinical practice. Most of them are ascribed to gastrointestinal disease in general. There exist, however, cases who complain with abdominal signs and symptoms whose causes are unable to be found, in spite of various examinations related to the abdomen. Epilepsy is a chronic disorder of the central nervous system manifesting with recurrent unprovoked seizures. Abnormal abdominal sensation often heralds the onset of epileptic seizures. Among them, there is a rare syndrome called abdominal epilepsy in which episodic gastrointestinal complaints like abdominal pain, abdominal discomfort, nausea, vomit, and diarrhea are the primary or the sole manifestation of epileptic seizures. It is important for clinicians to know that abdominal epilepsy is one of the differential diagnoses of acute gastrointestinal signs and that these symptoms can be treated with antiepileptic medications. Here we review abdominal epilepsy as one of the causes in acute diarrhea.

**Keywords:** acute diarrhea, recurrent diarrhea, semiology, epileptic seizures

#### **1. Introduction**

We clinicians often have to deal with gastrointestinal complaints in daily medical practice. Most of the abnormal abdominal signs and symptoms are ascribed to gastrointestinal disease in general. Meanwhile, the autonomic nervous system is a part of the central nervous system (CNS) and innervates all organs of the body including the gastrointestinal system (**Figure 1**). Autonomic dysfunction manifests with gastrointestinal symptoms like constipation, diarrhea, and oropharyngeal dysphagia. Neurodegenerative disorders as multiple systemic atrophy, allied parkinsonian disorders, and pure autonomic failure can show autonomic manifestations including gastrointestinal signs. Diabetes mellitus and alcoholic enteropathy also cause neurogenic diarrhea along with anxiety neurosis [1]. Their symptoms are usually chronic.

There are, however, rare cases with gastrointestinal manifestations whose causes cannot be found, though various examinations related to the abdomen are performed. Their symptoms are acute and recurrent episodically. Epileptic seizures are a "transient occurrence of signs and/or symptoms due to abnormal excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain" [2]. Epileptic seizures have to be distinguished from nonepileptic seizures and acute provoked seizures that occurs in the context of an acute brain damage or systemic disorder, such as, but not limited to, stroke, head trauma, a toxic or metabolic insult, or an intracranial infection [3].
