The Epilepsy Center of the Clinic for Neurology at the Cantonal Hospital St. Gallen offers comprehensive medical care for epilepsy patients in Eastern Switzerland. Long-term EEGs can now also be recorded in a state-of-the-art EEG monitoring unit.
Since the beginning of her work at the Cantonal Hospital St. Gallen, the epilepsy expert Prof. Barbara Tettenborn, MD, had the wish for an epilepsy center with an EEG Monitoring Unit (EMU). The opening of the now completed premises was the occasion for a small celebration at which Prof. Tettenborn, Chief Physician of the Clinic for Neurology since 1999, was also able to toast her newly obtained Swiss citizenship with her staff and invited guests. Daniel Germann, MD, Director and Chief Executive Officer, officially opened the newly established EEG Monitoring Unit.
The long-term recording of EEGs over several days often provides the decisive information for the differential diagnosis of epileptic seizures and for the pre-selection of patients for possible epilepsy surgery. Although long-term drains have already been performed in the neurology department at the KSSG, this can now be done on two patients at the same time in the newly adapted rooms under the best possible medical and nursing supervision. In the monitoring room directly adjacent to the patient rooms for the medical epilepsy specialists and the FNDs (specialized MTAs), the EEGs are recorded and assessed. In the larger of the two monitoring rooms, “rooming in” is also possible if a patient needs or wants care from relatives. Dominique Flügel, MD, and Dominik Zieglgänsberger, MD, are responsible for the EMU from the senior physician side, and Michaela Gegusch, MD, will work there as a senior resident. Philip Siebel, MD, who did essential organizational groundwork, complements the team.
A special feature of the EMU in St. Gallen is that the unit is directly connected via a telemetry system to the duty room of the neurology intensive care unit, which is also located on the 9th floor. This always ensures that specialists have the patients in the two single-bed rooms in front of them. In case of complications, a seizure or other abnormalities, the physician on duty as well as the FNDS and nursing staff are immediately available.
Source: Opening of the EEG Monitoring Unit at the Cantonal Hospital St. Gallen on October 24, 2016.
InFo NEUROLOGY & PSYCHIATRY 2017; 15(1): 40.
