"Neurostimulation Device Offers New Hope For Those With Epilepsy" - Dr. Jon LaPook
Anti-seizure medication alone doesn’t work well enough in about one in three people with epilepsy, and for the past two years, Dr. Jon LaPook of CBS News followed the journey of an extraordinary family who turned to a novel treatment. 12-year-old Isabella Renaldo is a medical pioneer. At just eighteen months, she had her first epileptic seizure and at its worst she would have five or six a day. Two years ago, Isabella became the youngest person implanted with a kind of defibrillator for the brain, called NeuroPace. “We found that we were able to stop her seizures by stimulating it with electricity. So basically we were fighting fire with fire,” said Steven Wolf, MD, associate professor of neurology and pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and director of pediatric epilepsy and pediatric neurology at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s-Mount Sinai West. The device learns to recognize abnormal brain wave patterns that, left alone, would trigger a seizure.
- Steven Wolf, MD, Associate Professor, Neurology, Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Director, Pediatric Epilepsy, Co-Director, Epilepsy Unit, Mount Sinai Beth Israel, Director, Pediatric Neurology, Mount Sinai St. Luke’s-Mount Sinai West, Co-Director, Tuberous Sclerosis Clinic
- Saadi Ghatan, MD, Site Chair, Neurosurgery, Mount Sinai St. Luke’s-Mount Sinai West, Associate Professor, Neurosurgery, Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
- Patricia McGoldrick, NP, MPA, MSN, Co-Director, Comprehensive Pediatric Epilepsy Program, Mount Sinai Health System