Epilepsy & Seizure Services at Denver Health

Our expert providers provide diagnosis and treatment for a variety of seizure and epilepsy conditions.

Diagnostic Services

• Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) – The Comprehensive Epilepsy Program’s EMU allows for continuous video and electroencephalography (EEG) recording of a patient’s brain waves. Seizures are recorded and examined by our epilepsy specialists so that proper diagnosis can be made and the best treatment options can be determined.
• Neuropsychological Testing – Measures the presence and severity of memory and other forms of neurocognitive dysfunction that can occur in individuals with epilepsy. This testing can help in surgical planning as well as vocational rehabilitation.
• Wada Testing – An interventional radiological procedure, the Wada Test evaluates each half of the brain independently for language and memory. By mimicking the effect of epilepsy surgery on memory, the Wada Test is used to predict the safety and likely memory outcome of epilepsy surgery.

Treatment Options

• Medications for Epilepsy – For approximately 70 percent of patients, anit-epileptic medications alone can control all seizures. The Comprehensive Epilepsy Program at Denver Health offers access to all first, second and newer generations of these medications, as well as expert direction on how to use and combine them when necessary to improve their effectiveness and tolerability.
• Epilepsy Surgery – For the patient who is not seizure-free with medication therapy alone, hope still exists for a better life. In fact, after proper localization of the epileptogenic zone through the very detailed testing described above, epilepsy surgery can render patients seizure free in 50-80 percent of cases (depending on the source of epilepsy when identified).
• Vagus Nerve Stimulator (VNS) – Denver Health also offers surgical implantation of the VNS, a pacemaker-like device that controls seizures by intermittent and on-demand stimulation of the vagus nerve.

Clinical Trials: Hope for the Future

For the patient who is not well controlled with medications and is unable to receive epilepsy surgery, the Comprehensive Epilepsy Program also offers patients the opportunity to participate in clinical trials of the next generation of Anti-Epileptic Drugs and other novel treatments. Patients with medically and surgically refractory epilepsy may be among the first to benefit from advancements in the field.