Rainbow’s Epilepsy Center offers numerous services and advanced technologies that contribute to our pioneering care of children with seizure disorders. For example, we have:

Experienced staff
There are as many as 100 different types of epilepsy, and treatment varies depending on what kind your child has.

Our evaluations are done by experienced pediatric epileptologists from Rainbow’s Pediatric Neurology Division, who typically conduct over 13,000 clinic visits per year, giving them a wealth of knowledge and experience from which to make a diagnosis and treatment plan.

Precise video-EEG monitoring unit
Video-EEG (electroencephalography) equipment provides video images of your child and readouts of his or her brain activity without the need for surgery. Monitoring at Rainbow is done in a specially designed, kid-friendly unit that is open 24 hours, 7 days a week, with space for parents/caregivers to sty with the child.
This highly specialized unit allows us to:

• Confirm the type(s) of seizures
• See how many are occurring
• Discover any triggers for seizures
• Direct alterations in drug therapy
• Localize surgical site(s)

Specialized imaging techniques
Rainbow boasts state-of-the-art imaging equipment including:

• Quad Coil High Resolution MRI
• PET (positron emission tomography)
• SISCOM (Subtraction Ictal SPECT Co-registered to MRI)

Together, these technologies are so advanced that it can locate brain lesions causing seizures that were previously undetectable. This capability means that some children who have previously been judged inoperable may be able to undergo seizure-reducing surgery.

The newest treatments
Medical therapy – New drugs for epilepsy have recently been developed, and more are in clinical trials. Because of our staff’s expertise, we are able to choose the drug—or combination of drugs—most likely to reduce your child’s seizures, while having a low rate of adverse side effects.
Also, because research is an integral part of the Rainbow Epilepsy Center, patients are able to gain access to new treatments before they are widely available.

Surgical options
Surgery used to be considered a last resort for children with intractable seizures. However, surgical procedures have become safer and more effective during the past decade. This fact, combined with the major advances in imaging the brain, make it much easier to determine which children will benefit from surgical therapy

We offer surgery specifically tailored to your child’s needs including invasive monitoring to localize seizure onset, mapping to localize the relationship of important functional areas to the seizure area, and surgical removal of the seizure producing area”.  The type of seizures and their foci (chief sites) determine the surgical options that are best suited for each child.

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.

Blood conservation program
One of the standard risks of intracranial surgery is blood loss and the ensuing potential for transfusion. With Rainbow’s blood conservation program (originally designed for Jehovah’s Witnesses), we pre-treat patients to optimize their blood count prior to surgery, minimizing the need for transfusion.

Cutting Edge Research
The Center conducts numerous studies of epilepsy medications and treatments.

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 Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, we ensure that this happens by providing family-focused care in a variety of ways.