Methodist University Hospital Advances Care for Epilepsy - Epilepsy Monitoring Unit Gains Level IV Designation

Memphis, Tenn. - Methodist University Hospital is now the home of a Level IV epilepsy center providing patients with the most comprehensive care available anywhere in the country.  A Level IV is the highest designation given by the National Association of Epilepsy Centers.  The Epilepsy Monitoring Unit is part of Methodist Healthcare's Neuroscience Institute and is the only center of its kind in a 62-county area and one of only three in the state of Tennessee.  One of the other two centers is located at one of our other sites, Le Bonheur's Children Medical Center. There are fewer than 100 programs across the United States.

"We are very pleased to have a Level IV epilepsy center at Methodist University Hospital," said Tulio Bertorini, M.D., medical director of the Epilepsy Monitoring Center and neurologist at Wesley Neurology. "This designation elevates Methodist Healthcare's Neuroscience Institute, and the Level IV designation allows us to offer our patients the highest level and most sophisticated care you can find as well as providing us with opportunities for research to further advance the care of epilepsy."

The Epilepsy Monitoring Unit specializes in neurological and neurosurgical evaluation and treatment and houses the continuous seizure monitoring unit.  The unit is devoted to epilepsy detection and treatment and specializes in long-term monitoring.  The unit can simultaneously accommodate up to four patients, doubling the capacity.  Patients admitted to these rooms are monitored 24-hours a day.  A technologist applies 24 small recording discs to a patient's head and one to the chest.  These recording discs record brain activity and heart rate.

Each room also has a microphone and a camera to assist doctors in evaluating seizures. An electroencephalogram (EEG) which detects abnormalities in the electrical activity of the brain, along with digital data and audio are collected in the control room.  This information is chronologically synchronized from each patient over typically four days.  Physicians then review the collected data allowing for a more precise evaluation of seizure type, quality and quantity. 

Once doctors determine if a patient is having seizures and what type of seizures a patient is having, they create a treatment plan.  That plan can include medication, vagus nerve stimulation with a pacemaker or surgery.  About one-third of patients who have epilepsy outgrow this neurological disorder.  After a patient has been seizure-free for five years, doctors can take the patient off their medication to determine if they have outgrown their seizures.

Epilepsy affects more than 2.5 million Americans. The majority of people who have epilepsy are under 10 or 60 and older.