As more families choose surgery to treat their child with epilepsy, the Epilepsy-Monitoring Unit (EMU) at the Pediatric Epilepsy Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital continues to grow.
Today, there are now 10 inpatient beds and several fully equipped rooms for continuous video-EEG monitoring, with most of the rooms providing a view of downtown St. Louis and the Gateway Arch National Park.
The first pediatric epilepsy surgeries occurred at St. Louis Children’s Hospital long before the EMU was established. Sidney Goldring, MD, professor emeritus and former head of neurological surgery at the School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital, performed epidural recordings on large group of patients. Outcomes were generally good considering the lack of advanced neuroimaging during the 1960s. In 2012, multiple WashU physicians published a 26-year follow-up study about the seizure and health-related quality of life outcomes of patients who underwent epilepsy surgery by Dr. Goldring from 1967 to 1990.
Today, WashU neurologists and neurosurgeons are working side-by-side to treat children and young adults with epilepsy at the Pediatric Epilepsy Advanced Technologies Clinic (PEATC). For more information or to refer a patient, contact Sara Graves, BSN, RN, Nurse Navigator at 314-454-6120 or peatc@wustl.edu.