Patient Care
The Clinical Epilepsy Center has outpatient facilities for evaluation of patients with seizures, as well as an inpatient epilepsy unit dedicated entirely to diagnosis and treatment problem seizures. This five-bed unit can perform computer-enhanced video-EEG monitoring in order to capture episodes that might be seizures or one of the many imitators of seizures. The unit can admit children with portable recording stations in Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. Such monitoring can both diagnose epilepsy and determine whether it is in a surgically accessible area of the brain and amenable to cure. The center works closely with the most advanced techniques of neuroimaging, including high-resolution MRI, fast CT scan, CT scan, SPECT, MR spectroscopy and functional MRI. We have available brain mapping procedures that image seizure foci in relation to critical regions of brain function. We can perform invasive monitoring with wires or grid electrodes in and on brain to better localize the seizure focus. We also perform research in new antiepileptic medications.
Ongoing Clinical Research Studies
- Stimulation of the Anterior Nucleus of the Thalamus for Epilepsy - SANTE, testing the Medtronic Intercept Device. Robert Fisher, M.D., Ph.D. National Principle Investigator
- Diagnosis and Therapy of Nonepileptic Seizures. John Barry, M.D., and Kim Bullock, M.D.
- Testing of the new antiepileptic medication, brivaracetam, Josef Parvizi.
- Driving simulator performance during seizures - Robert Fisher MD, Ph.D.
- Development of a seizure notification "Smart Watch" - Juliana Lockman MD and Donald Olson, MD
- Circuits underlying seizures and automatisms - Josef Parvizi, MD, PhD
- Role of caffeine in provoking seizures - Drs. Erika Stuckert and Robert Fisher
To make a clinic appointment, contact the Stanford Epilepsy Center.
