The Vanderbilt Epilepsy Center, established in 1989, is a national leader in the treatment of epilepsy in both children and adults. In fact, our epilepsy patients come to us from across the state and around the country. A team of dedicated epilepsy physicians, healthcare professionals and support staff evaluate and treat our epilepsy patients.

The main treatment options for people with epilepsy include:

• medications
• surgery
• vagus nerve stimulation
• ketogenic diet

Investigational treatment is also considered as an option for eligible patients. The Vanderbilt Epilepsy Center meets and exceeds guidelines for level-four medical and surgical epilepsy centers.

Monitoring
In the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit, our staff uses both video and EEG (electroencephalography) to monitor brain activity and seizure semiology that helps with much greater understanding of seizures. The monitoring allows us not only to diagnose a seizure problem accurately, but also to design the best possible treatment plan. We perform evaluation of refractory epilepsy patients for surgical treatment including:

•  prolonged sleep-deprived video EEG recording for epileptiform activity localization and quantification,
• high resolution MRI of the brain,
• PET scan of the brain for interictal hypometabolism,
• SPECT for comparison of interictal and ictal cerebral blood flow,
• neuropsychological testing, and
• intracarotid amobarbital (Wada) for lateralization of language and memory function.

If invasive monitoring is deemed necessary depth electrodes, subdural strip or grid array electrodes are utilized. The Vanderbilt Epilepsy Center offers surgical treatments including:

• lobectomy
• lesionectomy
• corticectomy
• hemi-spherectomy
• corpus callosotomy

A multi-subspecialty epilepsy surgery conference is held twice a month for data review and to recommend site and type of surgery.