The Vanderbilt Epilepsy Program at Vanderbilt has recently undergone several updates to improve both the surgical treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy and advanced pre-surgical evaluations.
We have three new epilepsy physicians with expertise in epilepsy surgical evaluations, allowing for more rapid clinic access and evaluation.
Recently, our epilepsy monitoring units (EMUs) in both the adult and children’s hospitals received a major upgrade with room renovations, including EEG software and hardware replacements to improve patient experience and provide advanced monitoring capabilities. These include optimized minimally invasive intracranial monitoring abilities with stereo-EEG (SEEG) for presurgical localization of the seizure focus. We also recently obtained ROSATM -- robotic operating surgical assistant -- to aid accurate and safe insertion of SEEG electrodes.
In addition to traditional resection and disconnection surgeries, our team now offers several advanced and minimally invasive treatment options for drug-resistant seizures, including new therapies for patients who previously would not have been surgical candidates. These include MRI-guided laser ablation, responsive neurostimulation (RNS), and deep brain stimulation (DBS). RNS and DBS use neuromodulation technology to prevent seizures in patients who cannot undergo surgical resection of the seizure focus. These therapies were only recently approved by the FDA for treatment of epilepsy.
For adults, the Vanderbilt Epilepsy Program is the only epilepsy center in Tennessee designated Level 4, the highest level, by the National Association of Epilepsy Centers. For children, we are one of the state's two Level 4 epilepsy centers.
Numerous new clinical and basic science research projects focus on improving diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy. They are a collaboration between Vanderbilt engineers and neuroscientists. These projects include neuroimaging and electrophysiology studies to examine brain networks in epilepsy patients, to help predict surgical outcome and to evaluate changes in brain networks after epilepsy surgery.
