Beaumont Adds Specialized Epilepsy Unit

Individuals who experience recurrent seizures can now receive enhanced evaluation—and thus better diagnoses and treatments—at , Grosse Pointe.

The 289-bed facility opened a new Epilepsy Monitoring Unit on Dec. 6 to address what Beaumont spokesperson Karen LeDuc called "a need Beaumont identified as one to enhance the health care services available to our patients."

"In the past, Beaumont patients would need to travel to Beaumont, Royal Oak," " LeDuc said. "(The Grosse Pointe unit) is the only program in the immediate area that offers the surgical intervention and multi-disciplinary approach to epilepsy management."

Seizures are the result of abnormal signaling of nerve cells in the brain, according to Dr. Chaim Colen, neurosurgeon and director of the new unit.

"Having a patient spend a few days being monitored in a specialized unit like the EMU provides us with a complete picture of what's causing the patient's seizures so that we are able to determine the most effective course of treatment to reduce or eliminate seizure activity," he said.

In renovated private rooms with flat screen televisions, the patients—who must be referred to the unit by an epileptologist, neurologist or neurosurgeon—receive 24-hour monitoring using video and electroencephalograms, which record the brain's electrical activity. Used together, the tools show clinicians what is happening during a seizure, what part of the brain is affected, and how the seizures can be prevented or most effectively treated.

Epilepsy treatments offered at Beaumont, Grosse Pointe include the biopsy and removal of lesions that cause seizures, the treatment of cerebral complications, and the placement of intracranial electrodes and vagus nerve stimulators.

Beaumont, Grosse Pointe's epilepsy program has been recognized as a Level 3 Specialized Epilepsy Center by the National Association of Epilepsy Centers. Grosse Pointe nurses were trained by nurses from the Royal Oak location, which also has an epilepsy unit, LeDuc said.

The opening of the specialized unit comes on the heels of another new health care resource in Grosse Pointe: a pain center at the in the Farms. The center, announced early last month, provides patients with evaluations by board-certified pain medicine physicians and certified nurse practitioners. Resulting treatment plans may involve interventional pain procedures, medication therapy, physical therapy, massage, and pain management injection therapies, which include anesthetic injection, radiofrequency thermocoagulation, nerve stimulation techniques and nerve blocks.

According to the medical center, an estimated 56 million American adults experience chronic pain, while the annual cost of treating chronic pain in the United States is $100 billion.