UI Department of Neurology

Clinical Services

Our patient care commitment emphasizes compassion, convenience, and comfort, as well as the most advanced technical expertise in an academic medical center.

As one measure of UI Neurosciences clinical excellence, it was ranked among the top 25 departments in the nation in the most recent U.S.News and World Report poll. UI researchers are recognized for their work in the areas of Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, and balance disorders.

Neurology Clinical Services

The UI Neurology Department offers a broad spectrum of care. The UI Stroke Program offers 24/7 consultation with a stroke physician and has a full–time nurse coordinator. As part of a multidisciplinary team, the department offers inpatient epilepsy monitoring for the diagosis of epilepsy and other seizure disorders. The UI Sleep Disorders Center is a one–of–a–kind resource for patients with sleep issues. The department also has a highly trained neuro–muscular sub–specialist and four sub–specialists who treat a broad range of movement disorders. Additionally, they offer comprehensive treatment for a number of other neurological disorders including MS and an adult MDA clinic.

Neurosurgery Services

Neurosurgery's clinical services are designed around patient–centered care interwoven with operating room expertise. All appointments with the Department of Neurosurgery require a physician referral.

UI Hospitals and Clinics neurosurgeons offer the most advanced treatment of syringomyelia (SM) and Chiari malformation (CM) in the country. Neurosurgeon Arnold Menezes, MD, medical director of the American Syringomyelia Alliance Project, a patient support organization, has more than 30 years of experience with the surgical treatment of the cranio–cervical junction, including CM. The prevalence of CM is 1 in every 2,000 Americans, and patients diagnosed with the disorder need immediate help by a highly experienced neurosurgeon.

Best Doctors

UI Neurosciences has 17 physician listed on the 2009-2010 "Best Doctors in America" database including:

View our list of neurologists and neurosurgeons.

Stories of Hope

Seizure–Free, At Last

Portrait: Stacey Oliver

Out of the blue, Stacey Oliver passed out and briefly stopped breathing while reading a book on her couch. "My husband thought I was choking," Oliver says. She wasn't—it was a convulsive seizure.

Oliver consulted with UI neurologist R. Tyson Garrett, MD. To control the seizures, Garrett prescribed different medications, but the seizures continued, including three "grand mal" episodes.

Garrett referred Oliver to the UI Comprehensive Epilepsy Program, the only program in Iowa that performs epilepsy surgery, where she was diagnosed with epilepsy.

Oliver's diagnosis meant she had to stop driving, a restriction that radically changed her life. As a mother, she had a 9–year–old daughter to take care of. As an insurance agent, she suddenly needed transportation help both at work and at home.

"It was a pretty bad year," she says.

A turning point in her decision to undergo surgery was a convulsive seizure in which she hit her head on the kitchen stove and passed out. The traumatic event was the first time her daughter had witnessed a seizure.

"Mommy, are you dead?" her daughter screamed.

After consulting with Matt Howard, MD, UI head of neurosurgery, Oliver underwent two EEG monitoring studies to locate the troublesome area in the right temporal lobe of the brain. Armed with precise mapping, Howard and fellow UI neurosurgeon Hiroto Kawasaki, MD, safely removed a small portion of the right temporal brain lobe.

Since then, Oliver has been seizure-free and she can drive again. Her chances of remaining seizure-free are about 80 percent long-term. "I'm very happy," she says. "The surgery has definitely made a difference in my life."

UI Department of Neurology :: 200 Hawkins Drive :: Iowa City, IA 52242 :: Phone: 319-384-8111 Fax: 319-384-7199 ::e-mail: neurology-scheduling@uiowa.edu