Affiliated departments Neurology Neurophysiology Neurosurgery Sleep center

Texas Children's Epilepsy Center evaluates and treats children with seizure disorders and epilepsy. The center offers comprehensive health care for children with epilepsy that includes:

• Treatment with antiepileptic medications (current and investigational);

• The ketogenic diet and related diets;

• Vagus nerve stimulation;

• Stereotactic radiosurgery (Gamma Knife); and

• State-of-the-art resective surgical procedures.

The multidisciplinary team includes pediatric epileptologists, neurosurgeons, specialized pediatric nurse practitioners, neuropsychologists, neuroradiologists, neuropathologists, dietitians and a social worker.

Epilepsy Monitoring Unit
A comprehensive service offered by Texas Children's, the epilepsy monitoring unit provides diagnostic evaluation to support the care of children with epilepsy. The team includes professionals from several departments, including neurophysiology, neurology, neurosurgery, nursing, child life, physical medicine, neuroradiology, nuclear medicine, food and nutrition and social work.

A four-bed epilepsy monitoring unit provides intensive in-patient monitoring that may last from six hours to several weeks, depending on each child's unique needs. Such intensive monitoring allows for more exact diagnosis of children with suspected epilepsy or difficult-to-control seizures. 

Patients are accepted to the epilepsy monitoring unit through physician referral only to identify seizure type, quantify number of seizures and efficacy of medication, and provide surgical intervention as a treatment for intractable seizures.

Imaging
Texas Children's Diagnostic Imaging plays a critical role in the evaluation of children with epilepsy. Imaging techniques employed include 3-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), functional MRI, magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), computed tomography angiography (CTA), conventional angiography endovascular intervention and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). Our program also has available positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetoencephalography (MEG).

Surgery
Children with seizures not controlled by antiepileptic medications may benefit from surgery. A number of different surgical procedures are available and are tailored to the needs of the individual patient. These include resection of structural lesions of the brain such as tumors, malformations and scars, resection of regions of the brain causing seizures without a structural lesion (nonlesional surgery), corpus callosotomy (split brain procedure), and hemispherectomy (removal of half of the brain). Some children can achieve seizure control with highly focused radiation therapy called stereotactic radiosurgery (also referred to as Gamma Knife). If resective surgery is not an option, the vagus nerve stimulator may help with seizure control.