Comprehensive Epilepsy Program

The Comprehensive Epilepsy Program serves as the single point of entry for patients with epilepsy and seizure disorders referred to Houston Methodist Hospital. The program comprises doctors from various specialties including neurology and neurophysiology, neurosurgery, neuropsychology, psychiatry, neuroradiology, nuclear medicine, neuropathology, and rehabilitation medicine.

Our program is designated a Level 4 program by the National Association of Epilepsy Centers and offers diagnostic and treatment options for patients with seizures, including the following:

• Evaluations for new-onset seizures, single seizures or recurrent seizures
• Evaluations for patients with recurrent seizures that persist despite the usage of different medications. Our clinicians have expertise in the management of patients with specific concerns such as management of adolescents, management of women before, during and after pregnancy, management of elderly patients and management of patients with brain tumors
• Evaluation for epilepsy surgery (including patients who have undergone prior surgical procedures)
• Evaluation for vagus nerve stimulation
• Evaluation for enrollment in research studies 
  
  

• Electroencephalogram (EEG)
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
• Functional MRI

Neurophysiology Laboratory 

A key component of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Program is the neurophysiology laboratory at Houston Methodist Hospital. The Neurophysiology lab is accredited by the American Board of Registered Electroencephalographic and Evoked Potential Technologists (ABRET ). Services provided through the lab include the following:

• A four-bed inpatient epilepsy monitoring unit for characterization of seizures and to evaluate patients for epilepsy surgery, where patients with seizures are evaluated with state-of-the-art equipment in private rooms in a hospital setting
• Inpatient and outpatient electroencephalogram (EEG) lab
• Ambulatory EEG monitoring
• Evoked potentials (visual, somatosensory and brainstem auditory evoked potentials)
• Intraoperative monitoring (evoked potentials, electromyography (EMG) and functional cortical mapping )