In the 2008 U. S. News and World Report Best Hospitals issue, Cedars-Sinai once again ranked among America's best in Neurology and Neurosurgery.
Cedars-Sinai Epilepsy Program
The Cedars-Sinai Epilepsy Program offers both consultations and continuous care to patients with seizure disorders. It provides a comprehensive multi-disciplinary approach tailored to the needs of all patients suffering from a seizure disorder. It is staffed by two full-time epileptologists, adult and pediatric epilepsy neurosurgeons, epilepsy nurse specialists and ancillary staff with special expertise in the diagnosis, management and treatment of patients with all forms of seizure disorders. All our staff, including our receptionists, nurses, physicians and technologists, are committed to provide you with the high level of service that Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is known for worldwide.
The program's outpatient service areas provide various seizure disorder clinics throughout the week for your convenience, as well as timely outpatient EEG diagnostic services, including routine EEG screening and ambulatory monitoring. The S. Mark Taper Foundation Imaging Center is in the same medical complex as the Epilepsy Program for convenient imaging service such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) scan. You will find all our services to be quite user friendly and accommodating to you and your family's busy lifestyle and urgent care needs. We also offer evaluation and management of patients who choose or who are recommended for implantation of devices for the treatment of epilepsy such as VNS (Vagus Nerve Stimulation). Access to magnetoenchephalography (MEG) service is available in collaboration with the Scripps Clinic in San Diego, California. Because many patients' seizures can be controlled by anti-convulsant medications, we not only offer management with anti-convulsant treatment but our physicians continue to stay at the forefront of anti-epileptic drug research. Our physicians are diligently working on the latest multiple anti-epileptic drug trials.
About 25 percent of patients with seizure disorders do not respond to medications. Studies have shown that patients whose epilepsy is not controlled with two or three medications have only a four percent likelihood of responding to an additional medication. Patients with medically refractory seizures (seizures that cannot be controlled with medication) are offered an evaluation at the Epilepsy Center to assess whether they are candidates for resective (taking out an area of the brain causing seizures) epilepsy surgery.
Multi-disciplinary Approach
The process of evaluation for patients with seizures requires a multi-disciplinary approach. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Epilepsy Program offers a team of highly skilled and qualified epilepsy specialists at the forefront of this field. The Cedars-Sinai Medical Center team includes nurses with population specific competencies in epilepsy, epileptologists, psychiatrists, neuropsychologists, neurodiagnostic technologists and neurosurgeons who provide help and assistance to patients with epilepsy disorders.
