During the EEG portion of this rotation, you’ll gain familiarity with: 

• normal patterns and concepts of organization, symmetry, sleep and its stages
• abnormal patterns of asymmetry slowing, spike and wave spikes and triphasic waves
• how diseases such as epilepsy, trauma and metabolic disorders alter EEG
• patterns in adults versus children (including premature and normal-term neonates, infants and toddlers) 
• invasive EEG, such as electrocorticography and chronic subdural
• long-term video EEG monitoring for critically ill patients

You’ll read EEGs for patients at several of our affiliated hospitals, but you’ll do so from this rotation’s training site, Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo.

Our weekly epilepsy clinic trains you to use EEGs in the treatment and diagnosis of epilepsy patients.

You’ll learn:

• how to manage adult and pediatric patients on multiple anti-seizure medications
• how to adjust the duration, frequency and intensity of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS)
• when to refer patients for epilepsy surgery

The EP portion of this rotation enhances your technical skills and knowledge of evoked potentials, including filtering averaging.

You’ll learn how to interpret various evoked responses, including:

• somatosensory
• brainstem auditory 
• visual

Depending on surgical scheduling, you also may have the opportunity to observe procedures – including temporal lobectomies and VNS placements — on this rotation. During this experience, you’ll learn:

• how we plan two-stage surgeries
• where to place subdural grids
• how to read EEG recordings during surgery
• how to create a functional map of eloquent cortices

• 15-20 EEGs daily
• 6-10 EPs weekly

• 2-3 modules

• pediatric and adult patients
• inpatient and outpatient