Pediatric Neurology

The Division of Pediatric Neurology at UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital has a distinguished history and since its founding has offered expert diagnosis and cutting edge care for infants, children, and adolescents with neurological disorders. Our program was a pioneer in the application of positron emission tomographic scans (PET) to study brain development in the 1980s and also became a leader in the application of this technology in identifying subtle brain abnormalities leading to severe and intractable early childhood epilepsies. The surgical approaches to select patients developed at UCLA in the 80s have become a standard treatment option at major epilepsy centers throughout the world. Today, the Pediatric Epilepsy Program offers consultations for complex epilepsy, state-of-the-art surgery, clinical anticonvulsant drug trials, dietary therapies, and neurostimulation therapies. We also have a specialized tuberous sclerosis clinic that is participating in numerous multi-center national trials.

During the past decade, UCLA programs dedicated to traumatic brain injury and sports concussion have been making a major impact on developing standards for evaluation and care for children who have sustained brain injury. The UCLA Steve Tisch BrainSPORT Program focuses on concussions sustained during athletics and recreation. Our program contributed to both the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and the Centers for Disease Control and Injury Prevention (CDC) recommendations for concussion treatment and follows these protocols in caring for youth athletes.

Physicians in the Division of Pediatric Neurology are involved in internationally recognized basic scientific research addressing the impact of epilepsy on brain development; the neurochemical and network relationships between epilepsy and common psychiatric comorbidities such as depression, ADHD and autism; neuroprotection and prevention of the evolution of epilepsy; traumatic brain injury models in the laboratory to study how cognitive deficits may emerge from brain trauma, and approaches to prevention; role of stem cells in the genesis of cancer. Clinical research includes the study of high frequency oscillations (HFO) and how they may improve surgical outcome, as well as how they may serve as biomarkers for the genesis of epilepsy after neonatal asphyxia, traumatic brain injury, and in tuberous sclerosis. The Division also conducts research in the applications of dietary therapy for epilepsy and other conditions.

Our clinics offer consultations in epilepsy, traumatic brain injury, sports concussion, developmental delay, autism spectrum disorder, headaches & migraines, tics & tremors, cerebral palsy, and tuberous sclerosis. We also work cooperatively with the Center for Cerebral Palsy, the Center for Autism Research & Treatment (CART) and the Neuromuscular Diseases Program.