comes and goes. Sometimes they’re not able to process language, and their speech is garbled.
If a child has the same feeling or sensation or behavior that happens over and over again, that is a sign the child might be having seizures.
How do you diagnose epilepsy in children?
We rely a lot on information we gather by talking to families. Often, we can make the diagnosis without any diagnostic test, although we still do an EEG, an electroencephalogram, to see if we can gather any further information. For this test, we place electrodes that look like little stickers on the head so that we can monitor brain waves.
How have smartphones changed how pediatric epilepsy is diagnosed?
I’ve been doing this for more than 20 years, and one of the things that has been most helpful to me is the advent of cell phones with video recording. I advise families, if you see a child having a funny spell, get it on a video camera. We are very good at being able to tell by looking at the recording if the event is a seizure or not.
What happens if a child is not diagnosed promptly?
Children are learning to read, write, think. Undiagnosed seizures can interfere with a child’s ability to learn and process information.
How do you treat epilepsy?
Most children are able to be seizure-free on medications alone. As the brain grows and develops, many children will outgrow seizures and not need to take medication long term.
More than a third of patients have seizures that are more difficult to control. For those children, we typically do advanced diagnostic testing to see exactly where the seizures are coming from. We then remove the part of the brain causing the seizures. Nowadays, this can be done by making a very small opening in the brain and treating the affected area with a laser. The opening is closed with just one suture and the patient usually goes home the next day.
Is epilepsy genetic?
Scientists have identified more than 500 genes that are associated with epilepsy. When we do genetic testing, we can tell not only what causes the epilepsy, but also which medications to use. We do genetic testing by swabbing the cheek. It takes five minutes.
We have a very strong genetics program at Guerin Children’s. The really exciting news is that we have, for the first time, a gene therapy in trials in patients with epilepsy. We may one day be able to treat children with this therapy.
Read more on the Cedars-Sinai Blog: Myths and Facts About Epilepsy