Epilepsy
Level 4 Epilepsy Center
We offer comprehensive management of this complex brain disorder for adults and children. Albany Medical Center's adult Epilepsy Program is a member of the prestigious National Association of Epilepsy Centers (NAEC), receiving a Level 4 designation, the highest NAEC offers. This high rating indicates the center offers the most advanced medical and surgical diagnostic and treatment options for epilepsy.
Each year, we perform more than 2,000 EEGs and evaluate more than 400 patients in our inpatient epilepsy monitoring unit for improved medical care or surgical cure.
At the heart of our epilepsy program is the inpatient epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU), which has twelve beds for continuous digital video and EEG monitoring. Six beds are located on the adult neurology floor and six beds on the pediatric floor. Additional monitoring equipment is available for other hospitalized patients, including those in the Neuro ICU.
The EMU operates 24/7 and is staffed by trained epilepsy nurses and technologists.
In-hospital epilepsy monitoring is specialized testing designed to record seizures over a few days. The test has two major purposes:
- To determine if symptoms are due to epilepsy or another condition.
- To identify the precise brain region causing seizures in patients who may benefit from surgery.
There are more than 30 FDA-approved medications for the treatment of epilepsy. Medical treatment is the most common form of therapy for epilepsy, and can help many patients become seizure-free.
When medications are not effective, we provide the following surgical options:
- Standard temporal lobe resection
- Selective amygdalohippocampectomy
- Temporal and extra-temporal neocortical resection
- Lesionectomy of tumor or other malformation
- Corpus callosotomy
- Vagus nerve stimulator implantation
- Responsive neurostimulator implantation
- Deep brain stimulator implantation
- Brain mapping and corticography of eloquent cortex to spare function
- Intracranial EEG monitoring
- Robot assisted implantation of electrodes for seizure monitoring
- MRI guided laser ablation therapy
