Seizures

Seizure care at Mayo Clinic

Care focused on you

At Mayo Clinic, your health care provider takes time to listen so that you get exactly the care you need.

Your Mayo Clinic care team

To evaluate and treat seizures, Mayo Clinic's world-renowned neurologists, neurosurgeons, imaging specialists (radiologists), mental health specialists (neuropsychologists) and other professionals work together to provide the care you need.

Having specialized expertise in a single place, focused on you, means that you're not just getting one opinion. Your care is discussed among the team, Your test results are available quickly, so appointments are scheduled in coordination. The most highly specialized epilepsy experts in the world are all working together for you.

What might take months to accomplish elsewhere can typically be done in only a matter of days at Mayo Clinic.

Electrodes are applied to the scalp before EEG

Epilepsy monitoring unit

Mayo Clinic offers inpatient video-EEG monitoring of brain activity to aid in diagnosing and treating seizures.

Advanced diagnosis and treatment

Mayo Clinic epilepsy care teams use advanced technology, including subtraction ictal SPECT coregistered to MRI (SISCOM), electroencephalography, computerized tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography and other tests to accurately diagnose epilepsy. Each Mayo Clinic location offers inpatient video-EEG epilepsy monitoring.

With state-of-the-art research and laboratory facilities, Mayo Clinic experts are constantly seeking new medical knowledge and innovations for people who have seizures. Today's research teams are studying potential treatments, including new medicines and new surgical options. A variety of clinical trials and other clinical studies may be available to you at Mayo Clinic.

Mayo Clinic is one of the leading deep brain stimulation implantation sites in the country. Mayo Clinic is one of the few facilities to have offered this advanced procedure during the time leading up to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval. Deep brain stimulation can significantly reduce seizures in people with difficult-to-treat epilepsy. Experts at Mayo Clinic have performed deep brain stimulation for epilepsy for more than a decade with good effectiveness. They're able to offer you the highest levels of safety and experience.

Mayo Clinic doctors review brain images.

Advanced diagnosis and treatment

Mayo Clinic care teams are equipped with the latest in technology and expertise to provide leading-edge diagnosis and treatment techniques.

The Mayo Clinic experience and patient stories

Our patients tell us that the quality of their interactions, our attention to detail and the efficiency of their visits mean health care like they've never experienced. See the stories of satisfied Mayo Clinic patients.

From 100-plus seizures a month to seizure-free
Successful epilepsy treatment allowed Eric Walthall, left, to resume skiing, a pastime he and friend Craig Wanous had enjoyed previously. Advances in epilepsy diagnostics, treatment return man to quality of life For years, Eric Walthall of Woodville, Wisconsin, experienced more than 100 debilitating epileptic seizures a month. For more than 20 years, he couldn’t drive. He stopped attending many of his sons' activities because he feared a seizure would cause him to lose consciousness. He…

Expertise and rankings

Mayo Clinic specialists provide personalized care.

Experienced specialists

Mayo Clinic specialists have the experience and resources to provide expert, personalized care to every person.

Mayo Clinic's epilepsy experts provide comprehensive care for more than 14,000 adults and children with seizures each year.

As a Mayo Clinic patient, you benefit from:

Teamwork. Mayo Clinic neurologists, neurosurgeons, imaging specialists (radiologists), mental health specialists (neuropsychologists) and others work together to diagnose and treat adults and children with epilepsy.
Cutting-edge techniques and technology. Mayo Clinic experts have expertise treating seizures — with medicines, vagus nerve stimulation, epilepsy surgery, awake brain surgery, ketogenic diet and other options. Mayo Clinic surgeons use computer-assisted brain surgery to precisely operate in your brain.

Mayo Clinic specialists working together on a treatment approach.

Teamwork

Mayo Clinic neurologists and neurosurgeons collaborate to find the best treatment approach for each patient.

Nationally recognized expertise

The National Association of Epilepsy Centers (NAEC) has accredited Mayo Clinic campuses in Minnesota, Arizona and Florida as Level 4 Epilepsy Centers. This means they're able to provide the most advanced level of evaluation and care for people with epilepsy. Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, is an accredited Level 3 Epilepsy Center. It provides advanced care and noninvasive evaluations for people with epilepsy.

Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, Mayo Clinic in Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona, and Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, rank among the Best Hospitals for neurology and neurosurgery in the U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals rankings. Mayo Clinic Children's Center in Rochester is ranked the No. 1 hospital in Minnesota, and the five-state region of Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, according to U.S. News & World Report's 2022–2023 "Best Children's Hospitals" rankings.

Learn more about Mayo Clinic's neurosurgery and neurology departments' expertise and rankings.