The Epilepsy Surgery Program at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh offers surgical care for infants, children, and teens diagnosed with epilepsy or recurrent seizures.
Our multidisciplinary team of experts includes pediatric neurosurgeons, surgical epileptologists, neuropsychologists, rehabilitation specialists, neuro-ophthalmologists, and social workers who work collaboratively to develop a personalized treatment plan tailored to your child’s condition and needs.
Our program:
- Is one of the highest-volume pediatric epilepsy surgery programs in the U.S., performing more than 140 epilepsy surgeries per year.
- Uses the most advanced stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) technology, including the ROSA robotic-assisted neurosurgical system, to perform complex invasive monitoring and locate the sources of seizure activity in the brain.
- Offers complex epilepsy surgery procedures — including hemispherectomy, hemispherotomy, and minimally invasive corpus callosotomy procedures with laser ablation — using advanced, image-guided planning and intraoperative mapping technology.
- Pioneered the use of responsive neurostimulation (RNS) technology to treat drug-resistant epilepsy in children and is the third-highest volume pediatric RNS provider in the nation.
Looking for Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery Care?
What Is Epilepsy Surgery?
The Epilepsy Surgery Program at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh offers surgical care for infants, children, and teens diagnosed with epilepsy or other seizure-causing disorders.
Our program specializes in the surgical treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy that has not responded to at least two types of antiseizure medication.
What conditions do you treat?
Our epilepsy surgery team treats all types of epilepsy and other disorders that cause seizures, including:
- Developmental and epileptic encephalopathy (DEE).
- Dravet syndrome.
- Febrile seizures.
- Frontal lobe epilepsy.
- Hypothalamic hamartoma.
- Infantile spasms.
- Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS).
- Neocortical epilepsy.
- Ohtahara syndrome.
- Rasmussen’s encephalitis.
- Refractory primary generalized epilepsy.
- Temporal lobe epilepsy.
- Tuberous sclerosis complex.
Who’s eligible for epilepsy surgery care?
Your child may be eligible for epilepsy surgery if he or she has epilepsy or spontaneous recurrent seizures.
What Services Do You Offer?
Our team provides comprehensive diagnostic and surgical treatment services for epilepsy and seizure disorders, including:
Diagnostic Services
Diagnostic services for epilepsy include:
- Electroencephalogram (EEG) — Checks for abnormal electrical signals in your child’s brain.
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) — Creates images of your child’s brain or spine to look for damaged or abnormal areas.
- Magnetoencephalogram (MEG) — Uses magnetic fields produced by electrical signals in your child’s brain to map brain function and diagnose conditions such as epilepsy and tumors.
- Neurological examination — A noninvasive test to check your child’s reflexes, balance, movement, memory, and ability to think.
- Neuropsychology testing — Comprehensive evaluation of cognitive, behavioral, and emotional functioning to understand how epilepsy affects memory, attention, language, and problem-solving skills, and to guide treatment and surgical planning.
- Positron emission tomography (PET) — Measures brain metabolism and activity to help identify areas involved in seizures.
- Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) — Evaluates blood flow in the brain, often used during or after a seizure to locate regions where seizures originate.
- Transcranial magnetic stimulation — Noninvasive test that enables us to find motor and language sites in the brain.
- Wada test (intracarotid amobarbital procedure) — Assesses language and memory function in each hemisphere of the brain. Typically performed before epilepsy surgery to help determine which side controls critical functions.
Surgical Treatments
Our program offers a full range of surgical treatments for epilepsy and other disorders that cause seizures, including:
- Deep brain stimulation (DBS) — Uses an implanted device to deliver electrical stimulation that reduces seizure activity.
- Hemispherectomy — A procedure to disconnect one hemisphere of your child’s brain from the other.
- Hemispherotomy — A procedure to disconnect the outer part of one hemisphere of your child’s brain from the other and from the brain stem.
- Minimally invasive corpus callosotomy with laser ablation — Also known as laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT), this procedure uses a laser and MRI guidance to sever the corpus callosum, which connects the brain’s hemispheres. We also perform traditional microsurgical callosotomy.
- Responsive neurostimulation (RNS) — Implants a small implantable device that detects seizure activity and delivers mild electrical pulses to shorten or stop the seizure.
- SEEG — Also known as stereotactic electroencephalography, SEEG is a minimally invasive surgical procedure to precisely locate the areas in your child’s brain where epileptic seizures start. It involves placing electrodes directly into your child’s brain to monitor seizure activity.
- Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) — Uses an implantable device to control seizures by sending electrical pulses to the brain through the vagus nerve in your child’s neck.
What Can I Expect from the Epilepsy Surgery Program?
When your child comes to the Epilepsy Surgery Program at UPMC Children’s, they will receive personalized, multidisciplinary care from some of the nation’s leading experts in neurosurgical procedures for epilepsy.
During your first visit, your child will meet with members of our team for a comprehensive evaluation that may include:
- A review of your child’s seizure history and medical records.
- Brain imaging, including MRI and magnetoencephalogram (MEG) scans.
- Developmental, psychological, and social assessments.
- Noninvasive testing, such as an EEG or video recording of seizure activity.
- Physical, neurological, and neuropsychological exams.
Using this information, our multidisciplinary team will meet to discuss your child’s epilepsy treatment options. With input from your family, our team will recommend a personalized treatment plan tailored to your child’s condition and needs.
Do I Need a Referral to the Epilepsy Surgery Program?
The Epilepsy Surgery Program accepts physician referrals and self-referrals. You should check with your health insurance company to find out if a health insurance referral is required.
Your Epilepsy Surgery Program care team
When you choose the Epilepsy Surgery Program for your child’s care, your child’s team will include pediatric neurosurgeons, epileptologists, neuropsychologists, rehabilitation specialists, neuro-ophthalmologists, and social workers.
With a full range of available treatment options and our extensive experience and expertise, our team will develop and recommend a treatment plan that gives your child the best chance of a successful outcome.
