To provide your child with advanced medical and surgical treatments we offer state-of-the-art diagnostic testing by a team of dedicated experts. We recognize that it is very helpful and reassuring for parents and patients to know what they can expect each step of the way.

Family-focused care

During epilepsy evaluation and treatment, we want the families and patients staying with us to feel supported and heard. Like many divisions at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, we ensure that this happens by providing family-focused care in a variety of ways.

There are a number of assessment tools and services:

  • Evaluation by an experienced pediatric epileptologist from the Division of Pediatric Epilepsy, in a convenient location close to your home. This includes the main UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital location on the University Hospitals Case Medical Center campus as well as convenient outpatient locations at UH Landerbrook Health Center, UH Westlake Health Center and UH Medina Health Center.
  • At the main campus of UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital we offer brain wave monitoring in a specially designed child and family -friendly unit providing high quality video-EEG recordings acquired with the latest technology.
  • The video EEG record and analyse your childs brain waves during the awake state and during different phases of sleep. The unit is equipped with the latest video EEG technology allowing 24 hour observation by a staff of specifically qualified physicians, pediatric nurses, monitoring technicians and Child Life Specialists.
  • Our specialized EEG technology and expertize includes determining areas of the brain involved in seizure origin form the surface of the head in a noninvasive fashion by placing electrodes closely together for more accuracy. In addition we are experienced with the presurgical monitoring of infants and children into adolescence using specialized electrodes such as depth and grid electrodes. With these techniques we can record and analyse brain waves from deep areas within the brain to allow planning of a surgery treatment option. This may be a highly individualized and tailored operation performed by our pediatric neurosurgeon. In co-operation with engineers and neuroscientists from Case Western Reserve University we are developing a computerized model to perform source localization that is projected onto the patient’s brain image.
  • We also perform images of the brain blood circulation during and in beteween seizures called interictal and ictal SPECT scans using SISCOM technology.
  • Our neuroimaging center at UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital offers high resolution MRI and PET scanning with appropriate pediatric sedation. These technically advanced tests help us to identify structural changes in the brain that may be causing seizures. UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital operates a Pediatric sedation unit to further increase the safety of any surgical procedure, we have a pediatric sedation unit that is run by the Pediatric Critical Care team and pediatric anesthesiologists. These professionals can accommodate whatever special needs a young patient might have regarding sedation.

The team of experts includes pediatric specialists in epilepsy, neurology, neuropsychology, child psychiatry, neurosurgery, neuroradiology, neuropathology, nursing, anesthesiology, critical care medicine, physical/occupational/speech therapy, Child Life and social services.

The UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital multidisciplinary team works closely with specialists at the acclaimed UH Neurological Institute Epilepsy Center at UH Case Medical Center to develop and design innovative diagnostic techniques and provide patients with state of the art expert consensus recommendations for treatment in an interdisciplinary patient management meeting. As a full service pediatric hospital, UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital offers children with complex epilepsies experienced subspecialists who can be consulted on and join the team taking care of your child at any time.We strive to offer a seamless plan of care through many specialists. The team approach allows us to carefully craft a customized a treatment program for your child. Specific conditions that we specialize in include:

  • Epilepsy after premature birth or stroke
  • Epilepsy associated with tuberous sclerosis
  • Epilepsy associated with Sturge Weber Syndrome
  • First seizure and febrile seizures
  • Special epilepsy syndromes: Dravet Syndrome, Doose Syndrome, Infantile spasms, Lennox Gastaut syndrome
  • Refractory epilepsies