The Epilepsy Program at the American University of Beirut Medical Center is a multidisciplinary program that brings together a multidisciplinary team of health care providers to deliver a state-of-the-art continuum of care including diagnostic evaluation, testing, and treatment for patients of all ages living with epilepsy and seizure disorders.
A team of dedicated physicians and health care professionals – including epileptologists, neurosurgeons, neuroradiologists, neuropsychologists, and nutritionists – in addition to other faculty and staff members work closely to deliver the highest level of epilepsy care.
Our goal is to accurately diagnose and provide optimum treatment (medical or surgical) for each patient to significantly improve each patient's quality of life.
Patients from across Lebanon and other countries in the region come to our epilepsy program seeking expert, comprehensive and compassionate care.
Our program receives referrals for:
- Diagnostic evaluation: to differentiate epileptic seizures from non-epileptic spells
- Seizure classification: to classify seizure type to determine the appropriate medical management
- Presurgical evaluation: to determine patient's eligibility for surgical intervention
Diagnostic services provided include:
- Complete seizure history
- Comprehensive neurological exam
- Neuophysiologic assessment including:
- Routine awake and sleep video-EEG
- Outpatient prolonged sleep deprived video-EEG
- Inpatient continuous long-term video-EEG monitoring (non-invasive LTM)
- Invasive (intracranial) continuous LTM
- Neuroimaging including:
- Epilepsy protocol MRI
- PET scan (performed at a different hospital)
- Ictal and interictal SPECT scans
- Neuro-psychological assessment
- Metabolic evaluation
- Speech evaluation
- Wada test
- Functional brain mapping
Treatment options include:
- Medical treatment by antiepileptic medications
- Psychological counseling
- Dietary therapy- ketogenic diet
- Surgical intervention for medically refractory epilepsy:
- Focal Resection
- This is done when seizures are found to originate consistently from one single focus/area in the brain that can be safely resected and it involves removal of that part of the brain.
- Hemispherectomy
- This is performed when most of one of the cerebral hemispheres is affected due to a hemispheric lesion like birth defect, stroke, Sturge-Weber syndrome or Rasmussen's syndrome.
- Corpus Callosotomy
- This surgery is performed when seizures start on both sides of the brain at the same time. It is performed to interrupt the pathway by which seizures spread and does not involve removal of parts of the brain where seizures originate.
- Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS)
- This is performed when Video-Long Term EEG Monitoring reveals that seizures cannot be isolated to one resectable focus. The surgery involves implanting a small device under the skin on the upper chest. The device delivers electrical current to the vagus nerve in the neck, sending impulses to the brainstem and consequently decreasing the tendency for seizures and helping achieve seizure control.
Faculty
| Name | Title | Specialty | Email Address | Clinic Extension |
| Ahmad Beydoun, MD | Program Director, Professor of Neurology | Neurology, epilepsy | ab29@aub.edu.lb | 5800 |
| Marwan Najjar, MD | Assistant Professor | Neurosurgery | mn12@aub.edu.lb | 5800/5670 |
| Wassim Nasreddine, MD | Assistant Professor | Neurology, epilepsy | Wn13@aub.edu.lb | 5800 |
| Roula Hourany Risk, MD | Assistant Professor | Diagnostic Radiology | rh64@aub.edu.lb | 5020/60 |
| Mukbil Hourani, MD | Professor | Diagnostic Radiology | mh17@aub.edu.lb | 5020/60 |
| Pascale Karam, MD | Assistant Professor | Inborn errors of metabolism | pk06@aub.edu.lb | 7950 |
| Fadi Maalouf, MD | Assistant Professor | Psychiatry (child & adolescent) | fm38@aub.edu.lb | 5650/1
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