At some point in their lifetime, one in 26 people will have epilepsy. If your child is struggling with a neurological condition, so many things can seem impossible: finding the right treatment, living without pain, and hitting developmental milestones.
At Helen DeVos Children's Hospital, doctors specialize in the impossible and the robust neurosciences program, ranked one of the best in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, with a mission to help patients overcome the challenges that seem impossible. Pediatric neurologist and epileptologist, Dr. Seth DeVriesmore, talks about top-of-the-line epilepsy care and how his team treats it.
Epilepsy is a chronic disorder, where people have unprovoked seizures. A person is diagnosed with epilepsy if they have two or more unprovoked seizures that were not caused by some known and reversible medical condition; the cause of the seizures is unknown.
Many children outgrow epilepsy and about 75 percent of patients are treated successfully with medication. However, the other 25 percent don't and need treatment at places like Spectrum Health's comprehensive epilepsy center.
Spectrum Health's care for patients with complex epilepsy and seizure disorders includes the state's only mobile pediatric epilepsy monitoring unit for the evaluation of uncontrolled seizures. Wireless monitoring offers children the ability to move freely about their room and floor playroom giving them and caretakers a place to interact and play normally while advanced neurodiagnostic testing is occurring. During the entirety of the stay in the EMU, the patient is being carefully monitored by a dedicated team of pediatric-trained epileptologists, nurses, and monitoring technicians.
If medication, dietary changes, and neurostimulation don’t work, Spectrum Health's neurosurgeons are skilled in surgical techniques that can successfully and safely eliminate or reduce seizures.
To learn more, visit spectrumhealth.org.
