NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn’s recently opened epilepsy treatment facility expands treatment availability to more residents, with access to a team of highly trained specialists.
Epilepsy is the fourth-most prevalent neurological disorder, and over 2 million patients in the United States receive the diagnosis each year, according to a hospital press release. Yet symptoms can remain elusive, with only involuntary shaking presenting as its most common sign. These cases that present the greatest challenge, according to Dr. Blanca Vazquez, who directs the Brooklyn epilepsy program as well as New York University’s neurology department epilepsy clinical trials.
“Establishing a definitive diagnosis is critical to the successful management of epilepsy,” Vazquez said in the release. “The various forms of epilepsy usually stem from uncontrolled electrical activity in the brain.”
She said in the release that seizures can be triggered by a variety of situational causes — fever, alcohol withdrawal, infections or even sleep deprivation — or genetic factors.
The new center features technology capable of performing brain mapping to track and analyze seizure activity.
The center's team includes neuropsychologists; neurosurgeons; psychiatrists; nursing specialists; imaging technologists; physical, occupational, and speech therapists; dietitians; social workers; and researchers.
Langone Hospital-Brooklyn’s staff works closely with the center’s affiliated Manhattan branch, NYU Langone’s Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, where patients can transfer for surgery or other procedures.
