Yale New Haven Hospital is internationally recognized as a leader in innovative treatment for all types of epilepsy. In addition to clinical excellence and innovative research, the center was one of the nation's first and has evolved into one of the most active and advanced programs in the world.
With a Level 4 rating – the highest rating by the National Association of Epilepsy Centers – patients and families benefit from a model of care that integrates the expertise of the program’s clinical staff and advanced technology for diagnosis, seizure classification and treatment. Our care team is composed of neurosurgeons, epileptologists, neuropsychologists, neuroradiologists, psychiatrists, social workers, dietitians, nurses, technologists, bioengineers and neuropathologists, with subspecialized pediatric and adult expertise.
At Yale New Haven Hospital, our team of dedicated experts offers a multidisciplinary approach to care that integrates the expertise of colleagues in neurosurgery and diagnostic imaging to deliver leading-edge evaluation, diagnosis, and patient care to individuals with varying forms and degrees of seizure and epilepsy. Our program provides intensive audiovisual and electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring for diagnosis and localization of the affected area to tailor each patient’s care. Patients receive comprehensive inpatient and outpatient services, as well as a full range of medical, surgical, dietary and device treatment options, including investigative therapies and approaches not widely available.
Patients needing inpatient treatment receive care on a specialized eight-bed neurological unit with staff specifically trained in epilepsy monitoring.
We also have an extensive critical care EEG monitoring program to detect and treat non-convulsive seizures and prolonged seizures known as status epilepticus. We monitor the brain activity (via EEG and other measures) of patients with acute brain injury to detect impending stroke seizures, and other conditions that may impede brain recovery.
The EEG lab can be reached at 203-688-2495.
Our program is located in New Haven; some physicians may also see patients at Yale New Haven Health facilities in Stamford and Guilford.
The Yale Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at Yale New Haven has been instrumental in developing many of what are now widely practiced surgical procedures including the medial temporal lobe resection, corpus callosotomy, and intraoperative or extraoperative mapping of the primary functions of the cortex. Collectively, our specialty team brings more experience than almost any other program in the world to the patients treated at Yale New Haven Hospital. We offer numerous devices, including vagus nerve stimulation; responsive neurostimulation, which is a permanently implanted device that continuously reads the brain waves and provides tiny stimulations when a seizure tries to start; and minimally invasive laser ablations as an alternative to invasive epilepsy surgery.
Patients are supported by caregivers during each step of the process, so that a potentially very stressful experience can have the very best outcome both medically and emotionally.
The outcomes of epilepsy surgery are very encouraging. Many patients are completely seizure-free after surgery, with most others experiencing fewer or less severe seizures.
Our operating room suite has advanced digitized imaging, computerized 3-D placement of electrodes, sophisticated monitoring of brain activity during surgery, and advanced robotics to perform safe and optimal epilepsy surgical procedures.
The epilepsy surgery staff works closely with referring physicians throughout a patient's evaluation and treatment to maximize care continuity.
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a newly approved treatment option for epileptic patients who do not have successful outcomes from prescribed medication. Up to 30 percent of patients with epilepsy have continued seizures despite correct dosage of anti-seizure medications. This is known as medication refractory epilepsy.
DBS is a less invasive surgical option for patients with medication refractory epilepsy and can be effective for a variety of patients with partial-onset epilepsy with or without spread of seizure activity from a part of the brain to all of the brain (known as generalization of seizures).
During deep brain stimulation surgery, electrodes are implanted into select areas of the brain via small holes made in the skull. In addition, a small, battery-operated stimulator device is placed within the chest and connected to the electrodes When stimulated by the small device, the electrodes adjust brain activity, reducing the number and severity of seizures.
The Yale Comprehensive Epilepsy Center and its Epilepsy Surgery Council evaluate potential DBS patients. The Yale Comprehensive Epilepsy Center also offers a Deep Brain Stimulation Support Group for patients and their loved ones who have undergone or are considering DBS to treat epilepsy.
The DBS system is presently FDA-approved for patients 18 years of age and older. Experience from DBS for movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease has shown that this surgery is safe for most ages. DBS surgery may be performed on healthy persons in their 80s.
The success rate of DBS for epilepsy is measured by changes in the seizure frequency and severity. These outcomes have been reported in two main ways. The primary measurement is the overall average decrease in seizure frequency. A patient with at least a 50 percent reduction in seizure frequency is considered a ‘responder’ to the therapy. Success is also measured by the percentage of patients who are responders to treatment (“responder rate”). Long-term follow-up suggests that after six years of therapy over 70 percent of patients are responders.
Many advances in epilepsy patient care result from innovative programs and surgical procedures developed at the center. Its Level 4 rating is the highest given by the National Association of Epilepsy Centers.
Since age 2, Julia had been having epileptic seizures and convulsions. A team of healthcare providers at Yale New Haven helped bring her life back to normal.
