Epilepsy Program

Children's Hospital is designated as a Level 4 epilepsy center by the National Association of Epilepsy Centers. Level 4 epilepsy centers have the professional expertise and facilities to provide the highest level of medical and surgical evaluation and treatment for patients with complex epilepsy. Children's Hospital has Wisconsin's only Level 4 pediatric epilepsy program.

The 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 in children. 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.

Take a tour of the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit.

Epilepsy Program highlights include:

• A state-of-the-art epilepsy monitoring unit was created to diagnose and treat children with hard-to-control 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.