Each year, over 2000 patients with epilepsy and other seizure disorders come from around the country for comprehensive evaluation and treatment by the members of the Center's medical team. Neurologists, neuroradiologists, neurosurgeons, neuropsychiatrists, neuropsychologists, nurses, rehabilitation specialists and social workers collaborate to develop a specific treatment program for each of the Center's patients.

Patients who come to the Epilepsy Center first receive extensive diagnostic testing to define the seizure-involved regions of the brain and the areas important for speech, memory and other vital functions. The Center offers both inpatient and outpatient facilities equipped with digital electroencephalography (EEG), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), angiography, and magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Additional means of detecting seizure focus include metabolic localization and direct mapping via surgically-inserted subdural strips or stereotactically-guided depth electrodes. Unlike other facilities in the area, the Epilepsy Center uses continuous 24 hour monitoring to evaluate patients rapidly, often in a matter of days.

Beyond the newest technological advances, the Epilepsy Center's diagnostic approach encompasses evaluations by neuropsychiatrists, cognitive physiologists and other specialists who assess the impact of the seizure disorder on the patient's life—a key element in determining the ideal treatment strategy. With medical therapy, the great majority of the Center's patients can lead productive, independent lives. Approximately 10% of patients (primarily those whose seizures are not controlled by anticonvulsant medications) are considered candidates for surgery. The Center's neurosurgeons are experts in the full repertoire of surgical procedures for epilepsy, including lobectomy, hemispherectomy, and corpus callostomy. Intraoperative angiography, brain mapping, and neurophysiological monitoring guide surgeons to the precise seizure sites and steer them away from eloquent brain structures.

Each year, more than 2,000 patients from around the world visit the Epilepsy Center at The George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates for evaluation and treatment. Here members of the Center's medical team, which includes neurologists, neuroradiologists, neurosurgeons, psychiatrists, neuropsychologists, neuropathologists, nurses, rehabilitation specialists and social workers, are dedicated to helping people with epilepsy and other seizure disorders live productive, independent lives.

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