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A common type of surgery that helps stop seizures in epilepsy is a hemispheric surgery.
Hemispheric surgeries completely disconnect one half of the brain from the other. This prevents seizures from spreading to the other half of the brain.
Many surgeries fall under the group of hemispheric surgeries.
These procedures differ in distinct ways:
At UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, epilepsy surgeons are experts in hemispheric surgeries. They've used them to treat many different epilepsy diagnoses in kids.
One common type of hemispheric surgery is a functional hemispherotomy.
Largely, hemispherotomy surgery:
During a hemispherotomy, your child's surgeon:
The surgery takes about 4 to 6 hours.
After surgery, your child will be in the intensive care unit (ICU). They'll stay there for at least one night while our care team watches them the whole time.
Our team will check their blood pressure, pulse, and breathing often.
When your child is stable enough, the care team will move them to another nursing unit. They'll be in the hospital for another 5 to 7 days.
They may also need some rehabilitation to speed up their recovery. This could be in the hospital or after discharge.
Our surgery team will watch your child closely over the next few months to:
As with any surgery, complications can happen during hemispherotomy.
The major problems are bleeding and infection.
Other issues this surgery can cause are:
Your child's care team will test your child before and after surgery to watch for any changes in function.
But many kids function well with only half a brain. The healthy half of the brain takes over many of the jobs of the severed half.
Kids adapt better the younger they are when they have the surgery. Their brains are more flexible and able to compensate for losing one-half of the brain.
To make a referral, schedule an appointment, or request an evaluation for a child or teen:
Children's Hospital's main campus is located in the Lawrenceville neighborhood. Our main hospital address is:
UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh One Children’s Hospital Way 4401 Penn Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15224
In addition to the main hospital, Children's has many convenient locations in other neighborhoods throughout the greater Pittsburgh region.
With MyCHP, you can request appointments, review test results, and more.
For questions about a hospital bill call:
To pay your bill online, please visit UPMC's online bill payment system.
Interested in giving to Children's Hospital? Support the hospital by making a donation online, joining our Heroes in Healing monthly donor program, or visiting our site to learn about the other ways you can give back.