Duke offers a multidisciplinary approach to treating the symptoms and causes of epilepsy.

Our doctors are experts at the medical management of epilepsy and our position as a leading academic research institute gives patients the opportunity to receive new and innovative therapies and medications to control their symptoms.

When adequate trials of anti-convulsant medications do not prevent seizures, the next step is to perform a comprehensive evaluation to confirm the diagnosis and explore whether or not surgical treatment may help the seizures resolve.

Surgical Treatments for Epilepsy

Our multidisciplinary team of experts meets to discuss each patient's history and test results in detail to determine what options might be available.

Patients who are found to be good candidates for surgical treatment of epilepsy may have up to an 85 percent chance of becoming seizure free after surgery, depending on the specific test results and type of seizures. This is compared to patients who only take medication, which yields a less than 5 percent chance of becoming seizure free.

Our surgical approach to epilepsy has alleviated seizures in many patients, with few complications.

Surgical procedures commonly performed at Duke include:

• Placement of intracranial electrodes for recording seizures and brain mapping
• Mapping of brain function (language, motor, sensation, memory) using specialized techniques in and out of the operating room
• Anterior temporal lobectomies
• Resection of seizure-causing lesions (tumors, vascular malformation, developmental abnormalities) or scars
• Cortical resections
• Hemisperectomies
• VNS placement

To provide the very best in epilepsy care, Duke is active in both basic and clinical research, and we participate in a variety of ongoing clinical drug trials.

Appointments

For a physician referral, or to schedule an appointment, call 888-ASK-DUKE (888-275-3853).

Physicians

Physicians offering this service include:

• Attix, Deborah Koltai
  • Psychiatry / Medical Psychology
  • Medicine / Medicine-Neurology
• Cook, Sarah E.
  • Psychiatry / Medical Psychology
• Gallentine, William B.
  • Pediatrics / Pediatrics-Neurology
• Grant, Gerald A.
  • Surgery / Neurosurgery
  • Pediatrics / Pediatrics-Chairman Office
• Haglund, Michael M.
  • Surgery / Neurosurgery
  • Neurobiology
• Husain, Aatif M.
  • Medicine / Medicine-Neurology
• Mikati, Mohamad A.
  • Pediatrics / Pediatrics-Neurology
  • Neurobiology
• Radtke, Rodney A.
  • Medicine / Medicine-Neurology
• Sinha, Saurabh R.
  • Medicine / Medicine-Neurology

Locations

This service is available at:

• Duke Neurosciences/Spine
  Duke Clinic 1B / 1C, 30 Duke Medicine Circle, Durham, NC 27710
• Duke University Hospital
  2301 Erwin Road, Durham, NC 27710