Neurological care

Using the latest tools, technology and treatments, expert neurosurgeons at our hospital perform advanced brain surgeries, including:

• Brain tumor neurosurgery
• Cerebrovascular neurosurgery
• Endovascular neurosurgery
• Stereotactic neurosurgery
  

Our state-of-the-art epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU) serves patients whose lives are affected by seizures. The EMU enhances our ability to provide advanced epilepsy care.

What to expect at the EMU

Patients admitted to the EMU receive continuous, comprehensive evaluation using EEG recording with dual cameras in their rooms. This allows us to constantly monitor patients, refining diagnoses and responding to their needs in real time as a seizure occurs.

EMU referral

Patients may be referred to the EMU for a variety of reasons, including when their seizures:

• Are difficult to diagnose
• Are not responding to medications or treatment
• Have unknown/unclear causes
• Exist with other conditions (comorbidities) that are difficult to diagnose or manage
• Become severe or disruptive enough to consider alternatives, such as surgery

Electroneurodiagnostic technology is the study and recording of electrical activity of the brain and nervous system. We offer a comprehensive list of electroneurodiagnostic services, including:

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

Our EEG lab received accreditation from the Laboratory Accreditation Board of the American Board of Accreditation of Electroencephalographic and Evoked Potential Technologists (ABRET). We were the second neurology lab in Texas to earn this rating.

An EEG measures and records the ongoing electrical activity of your brain and can diagnose a variety of neurological problems, including:

• Common headaches
• Migraines
• Altered mental status
• Dementia
• Dizziness
• Syncope
• Seizure disorders
• Stroke
• Degenerative brain disease

We also use the EEG to determine organic causes of psychiatric symptoms and disabilities in children, helping physicians plan treatment. The staff here is trained with an emphasis on difficult pediatric cases, as well as treating Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit patients.

Long-term EEG monitoring

We also offer prolonged EEG monitoring at the patient's bedside. This test is accompanied by continuous video monitoring to diagnose seizures and other neurological disorders. A technologist is on call at all times to ensure the test runs smoothly.

Ambulatory outpatient monitoring

For patients with seizures that are difficult to predict, we provide an outpatient alternative to bedside monitoring. Electrodes are applied to the patient's head, and they carry a portable recording box while going about day-to-day activities.

The patient records any seizures by writing in a diary and pressing a special button on the recording box. Every 24 hours, the patient checks in at Medical City Plano so we can analyze the data. Ambulatory monitoring typically lasts 24 to 72 hours.

Evoked potential (EP)

An EP test records the brain's electrical activity in response to external stimuli. The stimuli can be auditory, visual or sensory. This test is often performed before, during and after spinal surgery to make sure nerves are not damaged. EPs can also diagnose neurological conditions, such as multiple sclerosis (MS).

Without proper intervention, patients who suffer cardiac arrest, traumatic brain injury, stroke or spinal cord injury may be left with permanent brain damage. We provide hypothermia and normothermia therapies to help patients recover from these experiences with no or minimal neurological impairment.

Hypothermia therapy

When an individual goes into cardiac arrest, this period of insufficient blood flow can permanently damage the brain. However, hypothermia therapy can improve chances of survival without brain damage.

During hypothermia therapy, the body temperature is lowered by a catheter with chilled saline solution or by cooling the body externally with special pads. The patient is monitored so they stay between 89.6 and 93.2 degrees Fahrenheit for 24 hours after resuscitation.

Normothermia therapy

Patients with a traumatic brain injury, stroke or spinal cord injury, can suffer complications resulting in a high fever. Left unchecked, a fever can also cause permanent brain damage in these patients. We use the same technology as hypothermia therapy to keep the patient's body temperature between 97.7 and 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit.