FUNCTIONAL NEUROSURGERY – EPILEPSY
The UAB Department of Neurosurgery is home to one of the most highly regarded epilepsy surgery programs
in the country and is staffed by specialists with expertise in all types of epilepsy. Our long history of innovative
diagnoses, treatment, and management of this condition has helped the UAB Epilepsy Center achieve a
designation from the National Association of Epilepsy Centers as a Level IV Center, the highest designation
available. Between our activities at UAB and at Children’s of Alabama hospital, our program is one of the busiest
of its kind in the nation.
WHY UAB
Epilepsy specialists at the UAB Epilepsy Center use sophisticated, multimodality evaluations to evaluate
patients who may have epilepsy, including magnetoencephalopathy (MEG)-based magnetic source imaging,
high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), combined EEG and functional MRI, single-photon emission
computed tomography (SPECT), and positron emission tomography (PET) scanning. In conjunction with the
Department of Neurology, we operate a sophisticated, high-volume epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU), which allows
us to properly identify candidates for surgery.
Our neurosurgery team offers advanced treatment options such as use of the ROSA robot to safely, efficiently,
and precisely place SEEG electrodes for direct intracranial recording. SEEG offers superior preoperative
localization of epilepsy-generating foci and recognizes more patients who might benefit from surgical ablation
of such lesions. This is available for both adult and pediatric patients. Our surgical resection options include
temporal lobectomy and neocortical resections. UAB is a high-volume center for responsive neurostimulation
(RNS) placement using the NeuroPace device to control seizures in patients with difficult-to-control epilepsy. We
also offer laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) for adult and pediatric patients and have recently implemented
deep brain stimulation (DBS) for epilepsy.
HIGHLIGHTS
• One of the busiest programs of its kind in the country, with approximately 90 adult cases per year
• Addition of Nicole Bentley, MD, who brings expertise in DBS, epilepsy surgery, and research into cognition
• High-volume EMU, which leads to high volume of surgical cases
• One of highest volume centers for RNS implantation (NeuroPace)
• Provider of deep brain stimulation and vagus nerve stimulation for epilepsy
• Trials of CBD and other compounds for treating epilepsy
• Sophisticated, multimodality evaluations for epilepsy that include MRI, PET, SPECT, MEG, fMRI, and VEEG
technology
• Utilizing SEEG and grid-based intracranial evaluations
• First DBS surgery for epilepsy in Alabama in 2019
• First laser ablation surgery for epilepsy in Alabama in 2019
NOTABLE RESEARCH
Dr. Kristen Riley:
• With Dr. Lawrence Ver Hoef utilizing portions of en bloc hippocampal resections from Epilepsy Surgery by
Dr. Kristen Riley correlating hippocampal internal architecture findings from 7T MRI imaging with pathology.
• With Dr. Sandipan Pati, investigating the role of the thalamus in epileptogenic networks utilizing data from
SEEG recordings
FACULTY LEADERSHIP
• Kristen Riley, MD, Professor
• Nicole Bentley, MD, Assistant Professor
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UAB Neurosurgery Annual Report 2020