Monitoring the mind: How tech can prevent seizures
A seizure can strike at a moment's notice and can cause scary symptoms and potentially long-lasting brain damage.
Now, leading-edge software and one of the nation's largest neurological monitoring teams at Aurora Health Care can intervene at a moment's notice to prevent prolonged seizures and the health issues that accompany them.
Located at Aurora's Heil Center, adjacent to Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center in Milwaukee, banks of monitors and telemetry allow technologists to simultaneously observe 64 patients undergoing continuous electroencephalogram (cEEG) testing across hospitals in Wisconsin and Illinois. Aurora Health Care is part of Advocate Health, the nation's third-largest nonprofit health care system.
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A seizure is a sudden burst of electrical activity in the brain. It can cause changes in behavior, movements, feelings and levels of consciousness. There are many types of seizures with a range of symptoms and vary in how much they affect daily life. Seizure types also vary by where they begin in the brain and how far they spread. Most seizures last from 30 seconds to two minutes. A seizure that lasts longer than five minutes is a medical emergency.
Nearly 4 million American adults and children live with active epilepsy, which is a neurological disease characterized by recurrent seizures. But epilepsy doesn't cause all seizures. Seizures can result from a stroke, head trauma, tumor, or a family history of the condition.
'A seizure can occur as a symptom of a health condition, such as a metabolic problem like low magnesium or a side effect of a medication,' says Dr. Ikram Khan, a neurologist at Aurora Health Care. 'Unlike epilepsy, treating the health condition causing the seizures will cause the seizures to subside.'
EEG tests are used to detect the electrical activity and any abnormalities in brain waves and help diagnose epilepsy and the potential causes of seizures. Electrodes placed on a patient's head can detect tiny electrical discharges that result from the activity of your brain cells and shows how well different areas of the brain are working.
Aurora Health Care's continuous EEG monitoring allows patient brain activity to be monitored for longer durations than the standard EEG. The room is staffed 24/7 by neurodiagnostic monitoring teammates with oversight from lead neurodiagnostic technicians who identify epileptic activity and transmit information directly to the patient's care team.
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This system also utilizes intercom, enabling technicians in the monitoring room to speak directly with providers and seizure patients at each of Advocate Health's 28 hospitals in Wisconsin and Illinois. This key feature provides crucial data to patient care teams and enables real-time analysis.
Through this advanced software, Aurora's neurodiagnostic teams are able to offer the community faster, life-saving epilepsy treatment, shorter hospital stays and a quicker return home and a healthy way of life.
'Aurora's epilepsy monitoring technology expansion unites each of its neurodiagnostic departments with electroencephalogram (EEG) monitoring services, seamlessly coordinating care, improving patient outcomes and enabling faster pharmacological intervention when needed,' said Steven Winkelmeyer, director of neurodiagnostic services.
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