Referring Providers - Cottage Epilepsy Center

The Cottage Epilepsy Center (CEC) is the only Center of its kind between Los Angeles and the Bay Area. Our comprehensive epilepsy program includes a team of epilepsy specialists and state-of-the-art monitoring equipment. Each patient will receive personalized care during their diagnosis and treatment.

Our Nurse Navigator

To schedule an outpatient evaluation with the Cottage Epilepsy Center, call 805-569-7820 or complete a contact form. To refer a patient for inpatient services, please contact Karen Secore, MS, APRN, CNRN, at 805-832-3633. Or fax your referral to her attention at 805-569-8242.

To schedule an EEG or other imaging exam, call 805-563-7000.

Karen's Bio

Teamwork

• Each patient will be managed by the Cottage Epilepsy Center team during hospitalization; however, input from each patient’s referring provider is necessary and patients will continue to keep their referral provider relationship intact.
• The Center is staffed by formally trained, board-certified epileptologists and nurses with experience in caring for epilepsy patients.

The Cottage Epilepsy Center offers a four-bed Epilepsy Monitoring Unit within the Neurology Unit at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.

Services

• Video-EEG monitoring can be scheduled for differential diagnosis of “spells” and pre-surgical evaluation for medically refractory epilepsy.
• Imaging techniques including 1.5 and 3.0 Tesla high resolution MRI, Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanning for localization of seizure foci.
• Specialized neuropsychological testing.
• Evaluation for medical and surgical management, which may include resection, and neurostimulator implant procedures such as VNS and RNS.

Surgical Evaluation

• Patients who are surgical candidates may require additional testing such as a Wada test (intracarotid amytal test) and ictal SPECT, MEG, FMRI.
• Test results will be discussed at an epilepsy case conference with a multidisciplinary team including, epileptologists, neurologists, neuroradiologist, nursing, EEG technologist and neuropsychologist.
• Patients who are recommended for surgical treatment will then be referred to a neurosurgeon that specializes in epilepsy surgery techniques including intracranial electrode placement, surgical resection, intraoperative functional mapping and implantation of neurostimulator devices.

We look forward to working closely with you, the referring provider, in diagnosis and treatment of this complex patient population.