Pediatric Epilepsy Program
The Pediatric Epilepsy Program provides comprehensive services for children with epilepsy including the newest drug therapies, vagal nerve stimulation, ketogenic diet and epilepsy surgery. Children's Hospital is home to the largest and most advanced pediatric epilepsy monitoring unit in the region.
Staff has extensive experience with patients who have unusual or difficult to control epilepsy. Medical treatment is offered for all types of epilepsy, and epilepsy surgery is provided for certain types of seizures. The pediatric epileptologists are experienced with conventional antiepileptic medication, as well as medications developed in recent years. Surgical results are excellent, a tribute to experienced pediatric neurologists, pediatric epileptologists and pediatric neurosurgeons.
The Pediatric Epilepsy team is led by Mary L. Zupanc, MD, program director of Epilepsy. Dr. Zupanc is the Heidi Marie Bauman Chair of Epilepsy at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin and professor of Neurology at The Medical College of Wisconsin. She is assisted by Sean Lew, MD, program director of Neurosurgery Epilepsy at Children's Hospital and assistant professor of Neurosurgery at The Medical College.
Take a tour of the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit.
Epilepsy Program highlights include:
- Seventy-four percent of epilepsy surgery patients are seizure-free following surgery.
- A state-of-the-art epilepsy monitoring unit was created to diagnose and treat children with intractable epilepsy. The eight-bed unit is extended through the use of several mobile units for monitoring patients in the pediatric and neonatal intensive care units and other areas of the hospital. The EMU, the largest of its kind in the region, has a central nurses' station with a 360-degree view of the private patient rooms. Neurophysiology technologists monitor video and EEG equipment in the unit 24 hours a day. Each room in the EMU provides a bed for the parent staying with the child, as well as other amenities to make the family's stay more comfortable.
- Patients can receive long-term video EEG monitoring within the EMU, the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
- Children's Hospital is nationally known for its ketogenic diet program. This complex diet requires specialized plans for each patient. Certified clinical dietitians directly manage all patients admitted for initiation of the diet.
 |
Pediatric epilepsy team: (From left, bottom row) Margaret M. Schweitzer, MSN, APNP, Kathy Eggener, MS, APNP, Mary L. Zupanc, MD, and Maria S. Chico, MS, APNP; (center row) Rhonda Werner, MSN, APNP, Sunila E. O,Connor, MD, Uzma M. Sharif, MD, and Charles J. Marcuccilli, MD; (top row) Kurt E. Hecox, MD, Marike Zwienenberg-Lee, MD, Michael J. Schwabe, MD, and Sean M. Lew, MD. | |
