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Comprehensive Epilepsy Center

Our Approach to Epilepsy

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NAEC Level 4 Epilepsy Center

The Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Epilepsy Center is internationally recognized for having one of the nation’s best interdisciplinary epilepsy teams and is a national and international referral site for the most complex epilepsy cases. For 40 years, our center has led the world in innovative and interdisciplinary epilepsy care and research through the departments of Neurology and Neurosurgery, and our world-renowned specialists are thought leaders at the forefront of leading all major national and international epilepsy societies, consortiums, and clinical trials.

Level 4 Epilepsy Center Designation

We are one of the first Comprehensive Level 4 Epilepsy Centers, the highest level designation from the National Association of Epilepsy Centers. This designation recognizes our expertise across a broad continuum of diverse child and adult epilepsy subtypes and provides the latest and emerging precision medicine-guided treatments for the most complex cases. As a Level 4 Center, our world-renowned specialists utilize complex forms of intensive neurodiagnostic monitoring, as well as more extensive medical, neuropsychological, and psychosocial treatment and offers a complete evaluation for epilepsy surgery, including intracranial electrodes and a broad range of surgical procedures for epilepsy. We are ranked in the top 1% of all hospitals in the nation for neurology and neurosurgery, according to U.S. News & World Report.

World-Renowned Care for All Stages of Life

Epilepsy has increasingly been recognized as affecting dynamic interactions between the entire brain and body. Our Comprehensive Epilepsy Center meets this challenge, treating patients at all stages of life with a leading team of world-renowned adult and pediatric epileptologists, neurosurgeons, neuroradiologists, neuropsychologists, neuropathologists, EEG technologists, genetic counselors and social workers. This comprehensive collaboration enables us to accelerate our understanding of epilepsy to offer individualized treatment options across the full spectrum of nervous system illnesses and conditions, from the common to the most complex.

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Advanced Treatment

We diagnose and treat adults and children with a multidisciplinary team approach that includes the most advanced diagnostic technologies, as well as state-of-the-art facilities for long-term epilepsy monitoring, to facilitate precision medicine treatment plans.

We design our treatment plans, which encompass a broad spectrum of neurological and rehabilitation services and, if needed, surgical procedures, to optimize recovery, while considering each patient’s unique case and customizing their regimen based on their individual needs. The nonsurgical and surgical treatments we offer include the following.

Clinical Trials for Epilepsy

Find an epilepsy clinical trial that's right for you.

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Research & Clinical Trials

Our team of clinical-based physician-researchers has led the nation in clinical trials studying pediatric and adult epilepsy, collaborating to uncover the origins of epilepsy during development, adult life, and its changing patterns throughout, as well as the differences between how the disease impacts men and women.

We have also taken the lead in studying febrile seizures, language disorders and autism, the relationship between seizures and seizure-induced brain injuries, the individualized treatment of epilepsy and seizure disorders, the impact of best treatments on quality of life and school performance, infantile spasms, pathogenesis and new treatments, the relationship between stress and epilepsy, and antiepileptogenesis—the prevention of epilepsy.

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Your Comprehensive Epilepsy Center Team

Our elite, multidisciplinary team of experts is at the forefront of epilepsy care and the development of groundbreaking therapies.

Meet Your Comprehensive Epilepsy Team

About Epilepsy

Epilepsies are chronic neurological disorders in which clusters of nerve cells, or neurons, in the brain sometimes signal abnormally and cause seizures. Neurons normally generate electrical and chemical signals that act on other neurons, glands, and muscles to produce human thoughts, feelings, and actions.

During a seizure, many neurons and different parts of the brain become synchronized and fire (signal) at the same frequency, meaning they are temporarily unable to perform their normal functions. This surge of excessive electrical activity happening at the same time may cause involuntary movements, sensations, emotions, or behaviors and the temporary disturbance of normal neuronal activity may cause a loss of awareness.

Epilepsy can be considered a spectrum disorder because of its different causes, different seizure types, its ability to vary in severity and impact from person to person, and its range of coexisting conditions. There also are many different types of epilepsy, resulting from a variety of causes.

Learn More About Seizures & Epilepsy