According to the National Association of Epilepsy Centers, UVA’s F.E. Dreifuss Comprehensive Epilepsy Program has been deemed to have the “professional expertise and facilities to provide the highest-level medical and surgical evaluation and treatment for patients with complex epilepsy.”
“We’re pleased to be recertified as a Level 4 center,” says Nathan Fountain, MD, the medical director of UVA’s epilepsy program. “At UVA, we’re able to present patients of all ages with a truly comprehensive suite of treatment options to control and in many cases stop debilitating seizures.”
Among other capabilities, Level 4 epilepsy centers offer:
- Complex neurodiagnostic monitoring
- Extensive medical, neuropsychological and psychosocial treatment
- A broad range of surgical options
UVA meets and exceeds the NAEC guidelines, with a team that includes adult and pediatric epileptologists, neuropsychologists, neurosurgeons, nurses, technicians, social workers, nutritionists and educational counselors.
UVA also offers several specialty clinics for patients with epilepsy, including one solely devoted to the care of adolescents and a clinic focused on treatment using the ketogenic diet.
As an academic medical center, UVA is also a leader in epilepsy research and clinical trials. Among other trials, epileptologist Jaideep Kapur, MD, received a $21.4 million grant in late 2014 to lead a five-year trial to determine the best medication for prolonged seizures when other drugs have failed.