Epilepsy Program

From new-onset seizures to seizures that are difficult to treat, our epilepsy program helps improve your child’s quality of life by achieving the best seizure control possible. Our priority is providing patients and their families the most convenient, comfortable and positive experience while receiving expert care from highly experienced neurologists and epileptologists.

Although seizures should be addressed with urgency, visits to an emergency room are inconvenient and often unnecessary. Our providers are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for emergencies.

What Sets Us Apart

As one of the largest child neurology practices in the country, our providers have deep connections with local and national associations focused on epilepsy and seizure-disorder care, management and research, including the Epilepsy Foundation, the Child Neurology Society and Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance.

Our providers constantly investigate treatments and resources to improve seizure management for our patients. This includes offering patients access to ongoing research trials.

We collaborated with St. David’s North Austin Medical Center to expand the Level IV Epilepsy Center to include pediatrics. The program is led by Karen Keough, M.D., and Lindsay Elton, M.D., who also serves as the medical director for the hospital’s child neurology program.

We also partner with providers at Dell Children’s Medical Center and Texas Children’s Hospital to access specialized testing, such as MEG (magnetoencephalography) and functional MRI.

Several of our physicians serve as faculty at Texas A&M College of Medicine, helping train the next generation of doctors.

New Onset Seizure Services

We know seizures in children can be scary and stressful for parents. That's why we offer expedited appointments with a neurologist and ongoing education and resources. Treating epilepsy can be challenging since each child is unique and will respond differently to various kinds of treatment. We work closely with parents to find the best treatment plan for the child and family.

What if the seizures continue?

All of our neurologists treat patients with epilepsy. For seizures that are difficult to control, our specially-trained epileptologists perform in-depth epilepsy evaluations that may include a variety of treatment options, including cutting-edge medical therapies, dietary treatment and epilepsy surgery with minimally invasive options.

Treatments include:

• Epilepsy medication
• CBD through the Texas Compassionate Use Program
• Ketogenic diet therapy
• Epilepsy surgery
• Laser interstitial thermal therapy (laser ablation)
• Focal Resection (lesionectomy)
• Corpus callosotomy
• Neurostimulation device implantations:
  • Responsive Neurostimulation (RNS)
  • Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS)
• Diagnostic testing
• Epilepsy monitoring unit
• Electroencephalogram (EEG) options:
  • Routine EEG
  • Ambulatory EEG
  • In-home video EEG
• Epilepsy monitoring unit (hospital-based)
• Neuropsychological evaluation
• PT/OT/ST Evaluation and treatment
• Neuroimaging
• Computed tomography (CT)
• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
• Functional MRI
• Positron emission tomography (PET)
• Single-photon emission tomography (SPECT)
• Wada test
• Magnetoencephalography (MEG)
• Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)

Team approach

Patients in our epilepsy program are managed by a network of multiple pediatric subspecialists. The most challenging cases are presented and discussed at multidisciplinary epilepsy case conferences at local and regional hospitals. It means you’re not just getting one opinion; your child’s care is discussed among a team of experts in the field and coordinated with your child’s primary care provider.

For our tuberous sclerosis patient families, we offer expert care overseen by epileptologist, Karen Keough, M.D., a leader in the field. Our tuberous sclerosis program is designed to improve your child’s function and quality of life. We work closely with area physicians, including the Children’s Comprehensive Care Center and other doctors specializing in genetics, cardiology, ophthalmology, nephrology and more. 

Research

We are proud that Pediatrix® Specialty Care of Austin is a sought-after site for clinical research related to epilepsy. This gives our patients the opportunity to participate in clinical trials, bringing the best care possible to our patients and their families.