Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital has launched an Infantile Epilepsy Center that focuses on the potentially devastating diagnosis of infantile spasms and other rare epilepsies that affect children under two-years-old.
The seizures typically present as small involuntary movements, crunches or spasms and require a rapid diagnosis to prevent developmental delay or worsening of prior development.
“Infants are not just small children,” said Sarah Weatherspoon, MD, an assistant professor of Pediatric Neurology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and Director of the Infantile Epilepsy Center at Le Bonheur Children’s. “Infantile epilepsy requires specific techniques, diagnostics and treatments.”
The center is part of Le Bonheur’s Comprehensive Epilepsy Program and includes neurology, neurodiagnostics, neuropsychology, neuroradiology, neuro-ophthalmology, genetics, clinical nutrition, pediatrics and speech therapy/feeding assessment.