Department Overview

Pediatric Neurology

Faculty:

Peter Heydemann, MD Section Head

Elizabeth Berry-Kravis, MD, PhD

The Division of Pediatric Neurology is centered in the Department of Pediatrics; there are four pediatric neurology attendings and the section works closely with the Department of Neurological Sciences. The main focus of the adult neurology resident experience in Pediatric Neurology is clinical care of general child neurology patients. Resident education is primarily focused on patient-based learning from inpatient and outpatient consultations in the Rush Children's Hospital (housed within the main Rush Hospital facility) and the Rush Professional Building.

The most common inpatient consultations involve seizure management and assessment of "spells," perinatal encephalopathies, hydrocephalus, and neurologic questions in psychiatric patients. Many of the inpatient consultations arise from the active pediatric and neonatal intensive care units at Rush Children's Hospital. Outpatient pediatric neurology clinics are held nearly every day and involve a broad variety of problems including epilepsy, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, developmental delay, autistic spectrum disorders, headaches, tic disorders, and neurogenetic diseases. Out-patient training in neurobehavioral care is available at our north shore office.

Specialty programs based at Rush include the Muscular Dystrophy program, which meets 3 times per month and is the largest in the Chicago area, and the Fragile X program which is the largest in the Midwest and is the base for an active basic science and clinical research program.