If you or someone you love is living with epilepsy, it can be difficult to go about your everyday activities and harder still to navigate your medical care. Uncertainty about your next epileptic seizure can deter you from making plans and living your best life. Managing a complex illness can weigh heavily on your time and resources and feel overwhelming. We’re here to help.

Emory Epilepsy Center — Atlanta’s only Level 4 adult epilepsy center* — offers a personalized approach to care that considers your unique epilepsy symptoms and triggers from every angle, so we can develop a treatment plan that helps you live your life to the fullest. We’ll see you through your epilepsy journey, helping you manage your epilepsy care every step of the way.

And Discovering the Promising Techniques of Tomorrow

You’ll receive world-class care at the Emory Epilepsy Center. As a level 4 center we’ve achieved the highest level of certification, helping set benchmarks for excellence for epilepsy programs across the nation. We’re ready to meet you wherever you are on your treatment journey — even if that means neurodiagnostic monitoring or more extensive medical, neuropsychological and psychosocial treatment.

After gaining a full understanding of your unique condition and triggers, your epilepsy doctor will first consider (and try) the least invasive treatment options. If your seizures aren’t well managed with non-invasive therapies, your care team will then discuss more invasive techniques with you and your family, including surgery if appropriate. Our doctors can provide a broad range of treatments and surgical procedures once they’ve determined how your unique epilepsy is best treated, including:

• Drug therapy – anti-seizure medications can help effectively manage seizures for many epilepsy patients. These medications are sometimes effective as a stand-alone treatment, but can also be used in combination with other treatments.
• Open resection – removal of the damaged brain tissue can eliminate, reduce or limit the severity of seizures. This technique is most effective when seizures always originate in a single location in the brain, and is only considered for patients with drug-resistant epilepsy who are strong candidates for surgery.
• Laser ablation - advanced MRI-guided technology offers a minimally invasive option for patients who find their anti-seizure medications are no longer effective. The technique allows us to precisely target and destroy the problematic brain tissue causing seizures. 
• Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) – a pacemaker-like device implanted in the chest and neck sends continuous electrical impulses to the vagus nerve and brain (where seizures start) and can help with seizure control. VNS is an effective treatment option for patients whose seizures don’t respond to medications, who are not good candidates for brain surgery, who don’t want to have brain surgery or who still experience seizures after brain surgery.
• Responsive Neurostimulation (RNS) – a small device implanted in the skull and connected to seizure-onset areas of the brain monitors brain waves for unusual activity (anything that resembles a seizure) and then responds with a small amount of electrical current that can stop, shorten or prevent a seizure. After implantation, the RNS system is a pain-free option for patients with medically refractory epilepsy.
• Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) - implanted electrodes in certain areas of the brain can help reduce seizures. This treatment option is often considered for patients whose seizures aren’t responsive to drug therapy, especially if they aren’t good candidates for surgery.