Elective

Neurology

Manage a broad spectrum of acute and chronic neurologic problems in children and adolescents.

Under the supervision of faculty attending pediatric neurologists and fellows, you will have have clinical experiences nearly equally divided between outpatient neurology clinics and inpatient direct or consultative care. 

This elective is laden with several didactic sessions as well, given by faculty attendings and fellows and devised to assure a well-rounded background to common pediatric neurologic problems.

Broad Range of Clinical Experiences

Outpatient pediatric neurology clinics are closely supervised by a host of pediatric neurology faculty, seeing new patient consults and follow-ups for chronic neurologic conditions.  

Patients may present with problems such as:

  • seizure disorders
  • neuromuscular disorders
  • demyelinating diseases
  • neurodegenerative diseases
  • headaches
  • developmental disorders
  • cerebrovascular diseases
  •  tumors
  • cerebral palsy
  • neurocutaneous syndromes
  • toxic and metabolic encephalopathies
  • head trauma
  • ataxia
  • neuropathies
  • infectious problems of the nervous system

Similarly, inpatient services address a vast number of different patient problems as above, particularly acutely presenting neurologic diseases or chronic conditions with acute episodes of worsening. 

You will initially evaluate patients in both settings, and subsequently present a thorough history, physical examination, study data, assessment and plan to a pediatric neurology attending for patient care planning.

Training on Technical Procedures

During the course of the rotation, you will receive training and exposure to a number of technical procedures and studies, including appropriate context and interpretation of neuroimaging studies such as:

  • CT scanning and MRI imaging
  • psychometric testing
  • eectroencephalograms
  • electromyograms
  • brainstem auditory evoked response
  • visual evoked response
  • polysomnography
  • CSF interpretation
  • long-term video EEG monitoring

Familiarity with commonly utilized neurologic medications including anticonvulsants, headache analgesics, and multiple sclerosis is expected to develop throughout the elective.

Caseload

Typically, 4 to 6 patients per outpatient session.

Years Taken

  • PGY-2, PGY-3 or PGY-4

Length of Rotation

4 weeks

Clinical Site