Transient global amnesia is sudden-onset anterograde amnesia with a temporary period of retrograde amnesia, typically occurring in adults aged 50 to 70. The amnesic episode typically lasts for several hours, between 1 and 24 hours. Transient global amnesia is not uncommon, especially in emergency medicine practice settings.
Recognizing and characterizing this benign clinical entity with typical clinical features is essential, and no advanced imaging or treatment is required. The clinical picture is limited to combined retrograde and anterograde amnesia, with the patient repeatedly asking the same question during the episode. Although disorientation may exist concerning other people and locations, affected patients never lose self-awareness.
Once resolved, the symptoms of transient global amnesia rarely recur. When the patient recovers from the transient global amnesia episode, the retrograde amnesia recovers in a telescopic manner, with the most remote memory recovering before more recent events. The events occurring during the amnesic episode are typically permanently lost. No other neurological deficits are present with this condition.
The diagnosis of transient global amnesia is mainly clinical. Patients with transient global amnesia do not end up with serious neurological sequelae, including stroke, epilepsy, or neurodegenerative disorders. Any atypical clinical feature should prompt the possibility of an alternative diagnosis, necessitating further diagnostic testing.
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