Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center is home to one of the most comprehensive epilepsy programs in the United States. The epilepsy team includes some of the most respected pediatric epilepsy specialists treating children from across the country who visit Le Bonheur each year.

The comprehensive epilepsy program is a key component of the hospital’s Neuroscience Institute, a center of excellence dedicated to the evaluation and treatment of neurological disorders in children and adolescents.

The Evaluation Process
The evaluation process at Le Bonheur Children’s Medical center is done with a multi-disciplinary team approach.

Your child will be admitted to our-state-of-the-art Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) which is located on the seventh floor of our hospital in downtown Memphis. It is here testing will be done to record, diagnose and determine an individualized treatment plan for your child.

Our center uses the most advanced technology to assist in the evaluation of your child’s epilepsy.

Testing may include:

• Video electroencephalogram (EEG) monitoring
• High density EEG monitoring (HD EEG)
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
• Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
• Magnetoencephalography (MEG)
• Neuropsychology Testing
• Single Photon Emission Computerized Tomography (SPECT) and subtraction SPECT
• Wada Test (intracarotid amobarbital testing)
• Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

The EMU includes a specially equipped playroom with padded flooring and video monitoring capabilities. All patients have a private room with a telephone, refrigerator, television with a DVD and video player. Family members also have space to stay in the room with their child during their entire stay.Download our EMU Patient Guide (PDF).

Patients and families can also use our CarePages service to create and share a personal web page for their friends and family.  When friends and family visit the site they can leave messages of encouragement and love on the message board, and you and your child can leave updates on the progress you are making at the hospital.  Click here for more information on CarePages.

Medical and Surgical Treatments
Once the diagnostic process is complete, our team of epilepsy specialists carefully analyzes each child’s results during a weekly conference. This ensures that each child receives a comprehensive medical opinion drawn from more than 30 years of experience and expertise.

A specific treatment plan for a seizure will be determined by your child’s physician based on:

• Your child’s age, overall health and medical history
• The extent and severity of the condition
• The type of seizure and cause
• Your child’s tolerance for a specific medication or procedure

The goal of seizure management is to control, stop or decrease the frequency of the seizures while promoting the child’s normal growth and development.

Treatment options may include:
Medications: There are many types of medications which can be used to treat seizures and epilepsy. These are selected according to the type of seizure, age of the patient, and possible side effects.

Medications given at home are usually taken by mouth as capsules, tablets, sprinkles or syrup. If the child is in the hospital with seizures, some medication can be given by injection or intravenously (IV) or by rectum (PR).

It is very important to give your child his/her medication on schedule as directed by your child’s physician. Different people react to the medication in their body differently, so adjustments to the schedule and dosage may be needed for good control of seizures.

All medications can have side effects, although some children may not experience any. You will help monitor your child for these, with your physician’s guidance.

While you child is taking medication, tests may be done to monitor the medication, including blood count levels, liver or kidney function tests, urine tests and EEG.

Study (new) medications: patients who have not responded to typically prescribed medications and are not candidates for epilepsy surgery may be given the opportunity to be treated with new study medication. Le Bonheur physicians are committed to the continuous search for better treatments for epilepsy through clinical research. We have had experience in the development of every new drug introduced into the US in the last 30 years. We continue to work with the FDA and drug companies to develop new treatments.

Ketogenic diet: This is a special diet which may be an option for certain children who do not tolerate medications or whose seizures are not being well controlled with medication alone. The Ketogenic diet is a very strict diet high in fats and low in carbohydrates and protein. No one knows exactly how the diet works, but some children do become seizure-free when put on this diet. However, this diet does not work for everyone.

Surgery: another treatment option for certain types of seizures is surgery. Surgery may be considered in a child who:

• Has seizures that are not controlled with medications
• Has seizures that are not controlled with medications
• The seizures are causing a lack of progression of development or loss of skills.
• Is injuring themselves from falls due to seizures

  Surgery for epilepsy and seizures is very complicated and is performed by a specialized neurosurgical team. The operation may remove the part of the brain where the seizures starting, or the surgery may stop the spread of the bad electrical currents through the brain.

  Surgical options:

  • Resective surgery: the part of the brain that causes seizures is removed.
  • Corpus callosotomy: The nerve fibers between the two sides of the brain are severed or cut. This interrupts the spread of seizures from one side of the brain to the other.
  • Hemispherectomy: One side of the brain is removed. This surgery is performed only if seizures have not responded to medications and in special circumstances (Rasmussen’s encephalitis, hemiplegic cerebral palsy, hemimegalencephaly).
  • Vagus nerve stimulation: A small device, called a vagus nerve stimulator (VNS) is implanted beneath the skin of the chest. A thin wire is placed around the vagus nerve in the neck and then connected to the device. This device is programmed to send impulses on a regular basis every few seconds to minutes to the brain. Additionally, if the child feels a seizure coming on, he/she may activate the device by holding a small magnet over the battery. This sends an extra impulse to the brain and in many cases, this will help stop the seizure, or quicken the recovery. Watch Le Bonheur Surgeons implant a VNS device in one of our patients.

Brain surgery is not an option for everyone with seizures. Your physician will be able to give you information on whether or not your child would benefit from brain surgery.