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Advanced epilepsy care for our community.
INNOVATIONS IN CARE
A leader in neurological care, Huntington Hospital has long offered a comprehensive array of diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical services for patients who experience a neurological injury or disorder.
Through our collaboration with Cedars-Sinai, we have further advanced the level of neurological care we provide through the opening of a new Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU). Creation of this new unit was made possible thanks to the generous support of donors Josephine and Tony Yeh.
Our EMU is a lifeline for patients living with uncontrolled epilepsy. While some epilepsy patients have symptoms that can be controlled with medication, those with uncontrolled epilepsy have frequent seizures that are drug resistant. Some of these patients, however, may benefit from a certain type of brain surgery. Our new EMU specializes in identifying patients who are candidates for this kind of surgical treatment.
The EMU includes updated patient rooms which are equipped with cameras and bedside electroencephalogram (EEG) monitoring used to measure brain wave activity. A patient who comes to the unit has 21 EEG electrodes — each correlating with a different part of the brain — placed on the scalp. Staff neurologists taper off or discontinue the patient’s seizure medications, then continuously monitor the patient over several days to record seizure activity and determine where in the brain the seizures originate.
When testing and monitoring are complete, results are reviewed at a meeting between Huntington and Cedars-Sinai physicians and nurses to determine the best next steps. Those patients that could benefit from advanced treatment to remove the atypical portion of brain can undergo surgery at Cedars-Sinai.
We are deeply grateful to the Yehs for their generous philanthropic contribution toward creation of our new EMU — and for helping improve the lives of epileptic patients in our community.
