Programs and Services | Overview
The Epilepsy Center at Boston Children’s Hospital provides a range of comprehensive diagnostics and therapies to treat pediatric epilepsy, as well as services to help support patients and their families.
Our clinical focus includes care for autoimmune epilepsies, infantile spasms, metabolic epilepsies, critical care epilepsy, and other aspects of seizure disorders, which are synonymous with epilepsy. These programs are listed below, followed by summaries of some examples of programs leading clinical care and research nationally and internationally.
- computational neurophysiology
- EEG lab
- epilepsy genetics
- epilepsy imaging
- epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU)
- epilepsy surgery
- ICU EEG monitoring
- neuromodulation
- neuropsychology
- ketogenic diet
- magnetoencephalography (MEG)
Synopses of Major Leading Clinical and Research Programs
The Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU)
The EMU is considered the inpatient hub of the Epilepsy Center, where patients are monitored for seizure activity in real time through continuous video-EEG. Our clinicians and researchers use phase I (scalp) and phase II (intracranial) EEG monitoring to help plan each patient’s individual treatment, which could include surgical resection, laser ablation, robot-enhanced placement of stereotactic EEG, and other approaches. We also use monitoring to help fuel our clinical and research studies in electrocortical stimulation and passive cortical tracking of brain functions, high-frequency oscillation analysis, and other sophisticated studies to diagnose and manage epilepsy.
Our team of specialists includes unit director Dr. Alexander Rotenberg, Dr. Jeffrey Bolton (medical director, Epilepsy Surgery Program), Dr. Scellig Stone (surgical director, Epilepsy Surgery Program), Dr. Melissa Tsuboyama (director, Neuromodulation Program), Dr. Agnes Kilian (director of ICU EEG monitoring), and others.
Epilepsy Genetics
The Epilepsy Genetics Program at Boston Children’s is dedicated to uncovering genetic causes of epilepsy in children. As one of the most extensive epilepsy genetic programs in the world, we’re at the forefront of genetic discovery and specialized treatment development, including ASOs (antisense oligonucleotides), gene therapy, and other individualized approaches to genetic diagnoses that lead to epilepsy and associated neurodevelopmental disorders.
The Epilepsy Genetics program is led by Dr. Annapurna Poduri and Beth Sheidley, genetic counselor.
Clinical Epilepsy Research
At the Loddenkemper Research Laboratory, our mission is to prevent, predict, and treat seizures in children through advanced technology that continuously monitors warning signs of seizure activity and uses this critical data to improve epilepsy understanding for medical professionals, families, and patients. We’re also working to evolve epilepsy care from a predominantly inpatient model into a predominately outpatient care practice, integrating seizure monitoring tools that predict and detect seizures with personalized therapy plans to prevent complications and ultimately heal the disease.