Examples of previous major advances in pediatric epilepsy from Washington University School of Medicine include the following:
Discovery of Positron Emission Tomography (PET), an important part of the pre-surgical evaluation of children and adolescents whose seizures do not respond to medication
- Development of a less invasive form of surgical removal of the middle portion of the temporal lobe (amgdalohippocampectomy), where seizures often arise in children and adolescents whose seizures do not respond to medication
- Development and evaluation of new anti-epileptic drugs in children
- Mechanisms of brain cell damage and death, with hope someday of prevention
- Techniques for directly recording seizures from the surface of the brain
New studies at the Pediatric Epilepsy Center include the following areas:
- Refining methods for epilepsy surgery
- Studies of new anti-epileptic drugs
- Clinical and basic laboratory studies of the ketogenic diet (How does the ketogenic diet work)
- Clinical decision making in the care of children with epilepsy
- Assessment of new diagnostic technologies
- Outcome studies of various forms of pediatric epilepsy
- Epidemiology of epilepsy in the U.S.A. and in developing countries
- Thermal regulation and cooling for treatment of seizures
- Brain-computer interface/neuroprosthetics
- Genetic markers for adverse effects of drugs