‘Drop attacks’ encompass both falls and transient loss of consciousness, but the term is not clearly defined. We offer our definition and explore the differential diagnoses. The most common causes are cardiovascular. We discuss clinical and electrographic criteria that suggest underlying arrhythmia or other serious cardiac disorders that require further investigation, and the potential diagnoses that may underlie these ‘worrying syncopes’. Vestibular dysfunction also commonly causes collapses, sometimes without typical vertigo. These two common conditions may coexist especially in the elderly. Falls in elderly people often require assessment through a lens of frailty and multifactorial risk factors, rather than seeking a unitary diagnosis. Some drop attacks may be due to longstanding epilepsy and we discuss how to approach these cases. Functional neurological disorder is a common cause in younger people, for which there may also be clinical clues. We review the rarer causes of collapse that may be described as drop attacks, including cataplexy and hydrocephalic attacks. Data sharing not applicable as no datasets generated and/or analysed for this study.

中文翻译：

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掉落攻击：实用指南

“跌倒袭击”包括跌倒和短暂的意识丧失，但该术语没有明确定义。我们提供我们的定义并探讨鉴别诊断。最常见的原因是心血管。我们讨论了提示潜在心律失常或其他需要进一步检查的严重心脏疾病的临床和电图标准，以及可能构成这些“令人担忧的晕厥”的潜在诊​​断。前庭功能障碍通常也会导致虚脱，有时没有典型的眩晕。这两种常见病症可能同时存在，尤其是在老年人中。老年人跌倒通常需要从虚弱和多因素危险因素的角度进行评估，而不是寻求单一诊断。一些跌倒发作可能是由于长期癫痫所致，我们讨论如何处理这些病例。功能性神经系统疾病是年轻人的常见原因，也可能有临床线索。我们回顾了可能被描述为跌倒发作的更罕见的崩溃原因，包括猝倒和脑积水发作。数据共享不适用，因为本研究没有生成和/或分析数据集。