Treating Pediatric Neurological Conditions
Our Neurosciences Center at CHRISTUS Children's is critical in evaluating, diagnosing, and treating various neurological conditions. Patients ranging from newborns to teens can benefit from the technology and professional skill set available.
Our Neurology Programs
Our specialists offer a Neuromuscular Program, an Epilepsy Program, and a Comprehensive Autism Program. Learn About Our Neurology Programs.
CHRISTUS Children's Neurology Team
Our neurology team specializes in diagnosing, treating, and managing complex neurological disorders like autism, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis. Learn About Our Neurology Care.
CHRISTUS Children's Neurosurgery Team
Our neurosurgery team specializes in performing surgical procedures on the brain and nervous system, such as removing tumors, repairing spinal cord injuries, and treating head trauma. Learn About Our Neurosurgery Care.
Hours & Locations
Children's - Neurosciences Center
Neurological Programs to Treat Children
Our Neurosciences Center at CHRISTUS Children's provides our patients and families with compassionate care, expertise, and resources for neurological conditions.
Neuromuscular Program
Our Neuromuscular Program takes a multidisciplinary approach to diagnose and treat neuromuscular disorders, which affect the nerves that control voluntary muscles. This may include conditions such as muscular dystrophy, spinal muscular atrophy, neuropathy, myopathy, and other related disorders.
Epilepsy Program
At CHRISTUS Children’s, we provide the highest level of evidence-based epilepsy treatment and support to you and your child. With a tailored treatment plan designed for your child, our team is with you every step of the way to answer your questions and help your child.
Autism Program
CHRISTUS Children's Comprehensive Autism Program has partnered with the Autism Treatment Center and UTSA's Department of Educational Psychology to provide Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) therapy.
Neurosciences Center Offers Comprehensive Approach
Leading The CHRISTUS Children’s Neurosciences Center are Dr. Melissa Svoboda and Dr. Mark Lee. Their teams work together to diagnose and treat children with conditions that affect their brain, spinal cord, nervous system, and muscles.
The neurology team diagnoses neuro disorders and when warranted will refer patients to Dr. Lee and his team to determine if neurosurgery is warranted. Dr. Lee specializes in procedures that can actually alleviate the symptoms of epilepsy and other seizure disorders.
Medical Director of CHRISTUS Children's Autism Program
Dr. Melissa Svoboda is the medical director of CHRISTUS Children's Autism Program and Division Chief of the Department of Neurology at CHRISTUS Children's.
The neurology department specializes in the following:
- Autism
- Cerebral palsy
- Developmental delay
- Other neurodevelopmental disabilities
Comprehensive Epilepsy Program at CHRISTUS Children's
When your child is diagnosed with epilepsy, life can feel uncertain. You want answers, a plan, and a team you can trust. The Epilepsy Program at CHRISTUS Children's provides your family with expert care at every stage, guiding you from diagnosis to treatment and long-term management.
Why Choose CHRISTUS Children's?
You'll find a multidisciplinary team that works together, combining advanced diagnostics, specialized treatments, and compassionate support to help children and families manage epilepsy.
Here's what you can count on:
- A Level 3 Epilepsy Center: Accredited by the National Association of Epilepsy Centers, your child will have an advanced level of care for complex epilepsy cases.
- Care from birth through adolescence: Get care for your child through every age, with tailored treatment plans that evolve as they grow.
- A full team of specialists behind you: Your child will receive care from epileptologists or seizure specialists, neurosurgeons, neuropsychologists, dietitians, child life specialists, and neurogenetics specialists, all working together.
- Experienced leadership: Dr. Fred Perkins and Dr. Mark Lee bring years of experience helping children with epilepsy.
- Advanced technology and diagnostics: Tools like imaging, neurodiagnostic tools and genetic testing to pinpoint seizure activity and shape the right plan.
- Full range of treatment options: From medications to dietary therapy to minimally invasive surgery and neuromodulation, you'll have options that fit your child's needs.
What Happens After a Epilepsy Diagnosis?
A diagnosis of epilepsy can feel overwhelming. But you're not alone. Once your child is diagnosed, our team will help you understand what it means and what comes next.
They will work closely with your family to create a personalized treatment plan for your child's needs—one that adapts throughout their life.
Here's what to expect:
- A clear, honesty explanation: We take the time to discuss your child's diagnosis, the type of seizures your child has, how it affects their health, and what it means for the future.
- A custom treatment plan: Your child will get personalized care based on their needs. This may include medication, dietary therapy, surgery, or neuromodulation.
- Ongoing support and adjustments: We track your child's progress, make adjustments as needed and connect you with specialists to help along the way.
- Educational support for every day: You'll gain knowledge and tools to manage epilepsy safely including seizure triggers, manage medications, and emergency response.
Advanced Diagnostic Tools
Every child's brain is different and a precise diagnosis is key to creating the right treatment plan. Our specialists use detailed, non-invasive tests to see how seizures affect the brain and where they begin.
Here's how we find answers:
- Electroencephalogram and video electroencephalogram (EEG and VEEG): These tests track brainwaves during seizures. These can be done inpatient and outpatient, including ambulatory EEGs for at-home monitoring.
- 3T MRI and CT Scans: These imaging tools help to see if any part of the brain looks abnormal or different.
- Magnetoencephalography and functional MRI (MEG and fMRI): These tests show where seizures start and what parts of the brain control movement, speech, vision, and more. This helps your doctor safely plan for surgery.
- Single photon emission computed tomography and positron emission tomography/computed tomography (SPECT, PET/CT): These imaging tools show seizure activity, even when regular scans look normal. SPECT imaging is done during a seizure episode.
- Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS): This non-invasive brain mapping tool identifies where the brain handles functions, so your team understands how to protect those areas.
- WADA test: This test is the only test available to determine which side of the brain controls memory and language, making it a critical step in surgical evaluation.
Your child may not need every test. But when they do, these tools give your team the clearest path forward.
Treatment That Fits Your Child's Needs
Every child's epilepsy journey is unique, which is why treatment looks different for each family. The goal is always the same: fewer seizures and a better quality of life.
Some children respond well to seizure medication. Others may need a different path. Here are treatment options.
- Medication management: Many seizures can be managed with anti-seizure medicine. If seizures continue after a two or more medications, your child may have refractory epilepsy and should get a specialized evaluation by an epileptologist.
- Dietary therapy: A high-fat, low-carb ketogenic diet can help reduce seizures in some children.
- Surgery for epilepsy: When seizures don't stop with medication, surgery may be an option. Our neurosurgical team offers:
- Resective surgery to remove seizure-causing areas, which may include lobectomy, topectomy, lesionectomy.
- Tumor resection to target and remove tumors linked to epilepsy.
- Hemispherectomy and hemispherotomy, two surgical options for severe, treatment-resistant epilepsy, where one hemisphere of the brain is significantly affected.
- Corpus callosotomy, a palliative procedure that reduces seizure spread in children with severe, uncontrollable epilepsy.
- Laser interstitial thermal therapy (laser ablation), which is a minimally invasive treatment that uses laser energy to target seizure-causing tissue.
- Intracranial electrodes (Stereo-EEG, Grids, ECOG), used when non-invasive testing is not enough. These tools help pinpoint seizure sources and map critical brain functions, ensuring surgery does not affect essential areas like speech, movement or memory.
- Neuromodulation therapy: For children who are not candidates for surgery or need additional seizure control, we offer brain-stimulating devices that help reduce seizures, including:
- Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) to send mild pulses to the brain through the vagus nerve.
- Responsive Neurostimulation (RNS) to detect and stop seizures at their source.
- Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) to regulate abnormal brain activity.
Your Epilepsy Care Team
Your child’s care team may include:
- Epileptologists: Fred Perkins, MD (Program Director) and Gustavo Charria-Ortiz, MD
- Neurosurgeon: Mark Lee, MD
- Nurse Practitioners: Amanda Burkhalter, PNP and Shannon Humphrey, CPNP-PC (ketogenic diet specialist)
- Neuropsychologist: Andrew Martinez, PhD
- Neuroscientist: Mark McManis, PhD
- Epilepsy Program Manager: Angela Childers, RN (CHRISTUS Children’s 2024 Nurse of the Year)
- Ketogenic Dietitian: Hailee Castillo, RD
- Dedicated Epilepsy Monitoring Unit Pharmacists
- PICU Consultation and Referral Service
- Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Specialists
- Child Life Specialists
- Neuroradiologists
- Neurogenetics Team
Contact Us
If your child has been diagnosed with epilepsy or is experiencing seizures, our team is ready to help. For more information or to schedule an appointment, call our Epilepsy Program Manager, Angela Childers, at 210-704-4841.
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CHRISTUS Children's Virtual ECHO Autism Clinic
CHRISTUS Children’s has joined Project ECHO to engage in a worldwide professional learning community focused on sharing best practices, knowledge and evidence-based research on autism. ECHO stands for Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes. The overall goal of Project ECHO is to help solve the world’s greatest challenges by delivering the right knowledge to the right place at the right time.
ECHO utilizes virtual, interactive sessions to mentor and guide community practitioners, educators and advocates, creating expertise and increasing access for individuals with autism and their families. Through ECHO, CHRISTUS Children’s autism hub team shares their knowledge and expertise with other health care providers, especially those working in underserved, remote and rural communities.
ECHO Contact Information
Email: projectechoautism@bcm.edu
Phone: 512-203-9225
Learn more: ECHO Autism » Bringing the Best Autism Care to Local Communities
CHRISTUS Children's ECHO Autism Hub Team
Heather Davis
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Neurosurgery for Children in San Antonio
Our Neurosciences Center at CHRISTUS Children's in San Antonio is critical in evaluating, diagnosing, and treating various neurological conditions. Patients ranging from newborns to teens can benefit from the technology and professional skill set available.
Given the complex nature of many pediatric neurosurgical conditions, we collaborate closely with other pediatric subspecialists at CHRISTUS Children's in the fields of neurology, urology, endocrinology, orthopedic surgery, plastic surgery, oncology, rehabilitation medicine, ENT, genetics and general surgery, to provide care that is comprehensive and compassionate.
Chief of Neurosurgery
Dr. Mark Lee leads our team of neurosurgical subspecialists at CHRISTUS Children’s. This highly skilled and experienced team provides outstanding care to children from newborns to teens with neurological conditions that may require surgical intervention.
CHRISTUS Children’s Leukodystrophy Care Program
The Leukodystrophy Care Clinic at CHRISTUS Children’s Hospital is a multidisciplinary clinic that provides patient centered care and supports families with special health care needs related to leukodystrophies. Leukodystrophies are a group of rare genetic disorders that affect the central nervous system, which is made up of the brain and spinal cord.
Conditions treated:
- Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD)
- Alexander disease
- Krabbe disease
- Metachromatic leukodystrophy
- Canavan disease
- Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease
- Vanishing white matter disease
- Peroxisomal biogenesis disorder
- Other leukodystrophies
The core team includes:
Director:
Sreenivas Avula, MD
Pediatric Neurology
Assistant Professor, Baylor College of Medicine
Assistant Director:
John Odom, MD
Medical Biochemical Genetics
Assistant Professor, Baylor College of Medicine
Clinic Coordinator:
Angela Childers, RN
Leukodystrophy.Care.Network@christushealth.org
Tel: 210-704-4841
Fax 210-704-4952
Certified Genetic Counselors:
Rebecca Littlejohn, MS, CGC
Melyssa Garner, MS, CGC
CHRISTUS Children’s is a Leukodystrophy Care Network (LCN) Certified Center, meeting or exceeding LCN certification criteria. The Hunter’s Hope Leukodystrophy Care Network (LCN) is a community of affected families, organizations and medical providers committed to revolutionizing the health and quality of life of individuals affected by leukodystrophies with proactive, innovative and comprehensive medical care standards and specialized centers.