The Culture of Different MKTG_150064494_2018 Service Line Big Book Full_FIN | Page 16

NEUROSCIENCE INSTITUTE
NEUROLOGY AND
NEUROSURGERY
EPILEPSY PROGRAM
12
Pediatric epileptologists
LEADERSHIP:
Amy Brooks-Kayal, MD,
Chief, Pediatric
Neurology
The Ponzio Family
Chair, Pediatric
Neurology
Michael Handler, MD,
Chief, Pediatric
Neurosurgery
The McMurry Seebaum
Chair, Pediatric
Neurosurgery
READ MORE ABOUT
NEUROLOGY AND
NEUROSURGERY:
Neurosurgeon
operates in
kyphoscoliosis
repair, p. 10
“A Step Ahead of
Papi’s Cancer,” p. 18
8
Epilepsy monitoring
unit beds
11
Active epilepsy
clinical trials
10
Current epilepsy
research grants
91
SEEG, Two Years Later
Madeleine Ames’s epilepsy was so severe she
couldn’t walk to school alone, although she
was 15 years old and school was just blocks
away. In 2015, she became Children’s Hospital
Colorado’s first patient to undergo robot-assisted
stereotactic EEG placement, or SEEG. With it,
her care team isolated her seizures’ precise point
of origination, and took it out.
“We’ve seen a number of patients who probably
would not have been candidates for resection
without this technology,” says Brent O’Neill, MD,
Madeleine’s neurosurgeon. “It’s very effective.”
Since Madeleine’s case, Dr. O’Neill and his team
have performed SEEG on 25 patients, 75 percent
of whom have gone on to resection.
Madeleine has been seizure-free for more than
two years. In fact, she’s now driving.
“It’s almost like I wasn’t even born,” she says.
“I first opened my eyes and I felt more free.”
Perinatal and
Hemorrhagic
Stroke Programs
The greatest risk of stroke is at birth. Sometimes
parents and physicians aren’t even aware that a baby
had a stroke until later, when symptoms appear.
By the time children do show symptoms — such
as only using the left hand or always walking on
the tiptoes — it might be too late to overcome
the damage. Early intervention is paramount,
especially because the plasticity of younger brains
helps them heal.
“In my experience, babies diagnosed at birth
tend to do better, regardless of their stroke size,
compared to kids who grew into stroke,” says
Jennifer Armstrong, MD, MPH, FAHA, pediatric
neurologist and Director of the Perinatal and
Hemorrhagic Stroke Program at Children’s
Hospital Colorado. “We’re trying to get the word
out there for warning signs so we can get therapy
started early.”
At the Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center, one of
only a few of its kind, Dr. Armstrong directs three
clinics where she sees about 400 children: the
Perinatal Stroke Clinic, the Hemorrhagic Stroke
Clinic and the Newborn Brain Injury Clinic.
“It’s my job to make sure they’re getting everything
they need, from testing to surgery to support,” says
Jennifer Armstrong, MD, is one of the only pediatric specialists in the
world with expertise in perinatal and hemorrhagic strokes.
Dr. Armstrong. “I’m kind of the director of their
lives right now.”
Dr. Armstrong works with a multidisciplinary
team including hematologists, rehabilitation
specialists, neurosurgeons, neuroradiologists,
pharmacists, nurses, clinical social workers and
neuropsychologists.
Along with the team at the Hemophilia and
Thrombosis Center, Dr. Armstrong is trying to
understand when and why strokes occur in utero;
she follows healthy pregnant women and children
who have experienced perinatal stroke into
adulthood in the hope of helping them achieve
better development.
Epilepsy surgeries
(July 2016-June 2017)
The Culture of Different
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