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With your help, we can make ambitious innovations in clinical care and education for our community.
Our neurosurgeons are committed to finding a cure for epilepsy. Through research and leading-edge technology, we offer surgical options for even the most complex patients.
Both adults and children can have successful epilepsy treatment. Experts at our comprehensive Level 4 Epilepsy Center and Children’s Hospital (for pediatric epilepsy care), develop personalized treatment plans so you can live the fullest life possible.
Why Choose Us
- High success rate: If a life free of seizures is your goal, our team may be able to help. We have an excellent success rate for curing epilepsy, transforming lives by improving quality of life and reducing or eliminating seizures.
- Comprehensive diagnosis: The first step to effective treatment is finding the source of your seizures. Our inpatient Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) allows us to monitor and pinpoint the precise area of the brain causing your seizures.
- Team approach to care: Our team of experts from multiple specialties develops the best treatment options for you. Our patient navigator will guide you through your treatment, answer any questions and help coordinate your care.
- Leading treatments: We are the only health system in the region to receive the highest designation by the National Association of Epilepsy Centers (Level 4). This designation means we provide comprehensive treatment options that can transform your life, including surgery using robotic-assisted technology and 3D brain mapping.
Conditions We Treat
Our team is focused on the treatment of epilepsy, one of the most common conditions affecting the brain. It is a nervous system disorder affecting the brain, causing seizures or uncontrolled electrical activity between brain cells. Seizures come in many forms and levels of severity, including:
- Convulsions
- Loss of awareness
- Loss of consciousness
- Twitching or jerking movements
- Visual hallucinations
Approximately 30% of people with epilepsy can’t control their dangerous seizures with
medication (refractory epilepsy).
What Our Leadership is Saying
“We can help people looking for an opportunity to cure their epilepsy. Patients’ lives are transformed — they can drive again, they can work.”
Services We Offer
- Imaging studies, including MRI, SPECT and PET scans
- Observation in our private Epilepsy Monitoring Unit to evaluate your brain activity more closely
- Stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG), a minimally invasive procedure using very small incisions to determine the exact location of your seizures
- Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) - implanting electrodes into specific areas of the brain, and stimulating these areas with small regular electrical impulses
- Seizure Focus resection - removing a small area of brain tissue where seizures originate
- Laser ablation therapy – using MRI guidance, a laser uses heat to eliminate the brain tissue causing abnormal electrical activity
- Responsive neurostimulation – an implantable device that delivers an electrical impulse to the brain to prevent seizures before they begin
- Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) – an implantable device that sends electrical impulses to your vagus nerve on a schedule to disrupt abnormal brain activity
- Disconnection surgery – Disconnecting a seizure network, depending on the type of epilepsy, can improve quality of life by eliminating severe and dangerous seizure types with corpus callosotomy surgery. It can also cure seizures in the case of functional hemispherectomy surgery.
Do I Need a Referral?
Yes. If you have tried and failed to manage your epilepsy with medications, ask your neurologist for a referral to the Loma Linda Comprehensive Epilepsy Center or call us at 909-558-2880.
What to Expect
An accurate diagnosis will determine your surgical treatment options. In collaboration with your neurologist, we may recommend imaging studies, including MRI, SPECT, PET scans or observation in our Epilepsy Monitoring Unit. The imaging studies will help pinpoint the location of abnormal brain activity.
Some patients need further assessment using electrodes placed inside the skull to record activity. We use the most advanced technology, stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG), to pinpoint the exact location of seizure activity. SEEG is a minimally invasive procedure that allows us to access precise areas of your brain using very small incisions. This robotic-assisted procedure uses high resolution imaging to map the brain, locate the seizure zone and guide our surgeons on where to implant the electrodes.
Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU)
Before your stay at our EMU, our patient navigator will contact you and schedule your admission. You may be directed to change your medications before your hospitalization to help analyze your seizures.
You will report directly to the EMU on your scheduled day. Your length of stay will depend on your seizure activity. Our team will work with your neurologist to trigger seizures during your stay. You are closely monitored to ensure you remain safe.
You can expect:
- A nurse to welcome you to the room
- A technician to place electrodes and give you instructions
- Shared rooms with patients undergoing epilepsy monitoring
- Bed-rest precautions to protect you during your stay
During observation, we learn what is happening to your brain before, during and after seizures. We track your seizures using video and electroencephalogram (EEG) monitoring equipment.
Our surgeons are on the leading edge of research and offer pioneering treatments and surgical techniques. We are at the forefront of epilepsy treatment in the region and across the United States.
The purpose of surgery is to permanently disrupt and stop the abnormal electrical activity in the brain that causes the seizures. Surgery may remove a lesion on the brain or a section of the brain. Other surgeries include using lasers or radiation to eliminate an area where the seizure originates or implanting a device that uses electrical signals to stop seizures.
If surgery will benefit you, our team will come together to provide the most advanced treatment options that are right for you. Specialists including epilepsy neurologists, epilepsy neurosurgeons, neuropsychologists, neuroradiologists and our epilepsy coordinator will create a plan focused on improving your quality of life and potentially curing your seizures.
How to Get Help
To learn more about how to get a referral to our neurosurgeons, call 909-558-6388.
Our team can also help you understand your health insurance coverage and work with your insurance company to get the approvals you need prior to treatment.
Aaron Holds on to Precious Memories Thanks to Epilepsy Surgery
"I never realized I had [a seizure] unless someone told me." -Aaron Alejos, Patient
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Physicians Make an Impact on Epilepsy Care in Malawi
Dr. Warren Boling and Dr. Travis Losey established the first physician-run epilepsy treatment program in the southeastern African nation of Malawi.
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Our Commitment to Epilepsy Care
Dr. Boling discusses our commitment to diagnosing and curing epilepsy. As a leader in research, we have one of the most sophisticated, full-spectrum Epilepsy Care Centers in Southern California.
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