Columbia Neurosurgery Leads the Way at American Epilepsy Society’s 2024 Annual Meeting in Los Angeles

Another Fantastic Year to Showcase Our Collective Learnings

January 15, 2025

Our  faculty members, Dr. Guy McKhannDr. Brett Youngerman, and Dr. Nathan Shlobin (PGY-1), recently traveled to the Annual American Epilepsy Society (AES) Meeting in Los Angeles December 6-9. The AES "is a community of professionals and advocates engaged in understanding, diagnosing, studying, preventing, treating, and curing epilepsy." Between our neurosurgeons, epilepsy neurologists, and neuropsychologists, once again Columbia was very well represented at the meeting.

Dr. Guy McKhann played a major role by speaking in the Plenary Symposium focused on “Exploring the Link Between Tumors and Epilepsy” and also co-leading and presenting at  the day long Epilepsy Surgery Skills Workshop.  Dr. McKhann also served as Chair for Session focused on “Tumor-related Epilepsy: Dynamics at the Neuron-Giloma Interface”. Says Dr. McKhann of this year’s conference, “The AES meeting annually brings together the top experts from all aspects of epilepsy patient care, research, and patient advocacy to work collaboratively to improve our understanding of epilepsy and patient care.”

 

Dr. Brett Youngerman presented in the Epilepsy Surgery Symposium discussing “What Did We Learn After 10 Years of LITT?”.  Dr. Youngerman is an award-winning researcher, including the recipient of the AES 2021 Young Investigator Award for his presentation Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy for Mesial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy: Multicenter Study in 268 Consecutively Treated Patients Including Outcomes of Subsequent Temporal Lobectomy for Seizure Recurrence (link). Dr. Youngerman also has published his study on the largest multicenter series to date of magnetic resonance-guided laser interstitial thermal therapy (MRgLITT) in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry (link).

Dr. Youngerman also presented in the the Temporal Lobe Club Special Interest Group (SIG): Balancing Seizure and Cognitive Outcomes in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy Surgery, where he discussed the roles of open resection and LITT in the treatment of drug resistant temporal lobe epilepsy.  

Dr. Guy McKhann played a pivotal role in the 2024 AES Conference

Says Dr. Youngerman of this year’s conference, “The American Epilepsy Society is a vibrant hub for innovation, collaboration, and discovery in epilepsy care and research. Our presentations this year reflect our team’s dedication to advancing treatment options and improving outcomes for those living with epilepsy.”

Finally, Dr. Nathan Shlobin (PGY-1) presented his poster, stating, “Our poster on laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) for epileptogenic cavernous malformations indicated that LITT was effective and safe. This represents an exciting multicenter initiative.”

Congratulations to everyone for their considerable contributions to this year’s meeting.  We look forward to joining in 2025 in Atlanta, GA.