Hemimegalencephaly Program

A Novel Treatment for a Rare Condition

Hemimegalencephaly occurs in just a handful of children worldwide each year. Until recently, families had few treatment options, all of which involved major brain surgery to remove the part of the brain causing the seizures.

But doctors at Children’s National Hospital have developed a successful alternative to major brain surgery for infants less than 3 months of age – making precise, controlled strokes in your baby’s brain that mimic surgery to stop the seizures. The late Taeun Chang, MD, former director of the Neonatal Neurology and Neonatal Neurocritical Care Program, and Monica Pearl, MD, director of the Neurointerventional Radiology Program, developed the stroke-inducing procedure several years ago.

Through our multidisciplinary team of neonatal neurologists, neurointerventional radiologists, neonatologists, neurosurgeons and our Level IV Pediatric Epilepsy Center, we can provide this minimally-invasive option if they are less than 3 months of age and are experiencing seizures that do not stop with seizure medications. The procedure has been successful in several patients at Children's National, including Bella, a little girl who recently celebrated six years of seizure freedom after our groundbreaking treatment.