Neurological, developmental, behavioral, and psychiatric disorders during
infancy, childhood, and adolescence are some of the most frequent and challenging
problems seen in clinical practice; however, house staff, pediatricians,
neurologists, psychiatrists, family physicians, nurses, and psychologists
report considerable difficulty in managing the most common child neurological
conditions, and promptly refer patients to the pediatric neurologist. In
the last decade, significant diagnostic and therapeutic advances have been
made for a number of conditions such as epilepsy, sleep disorders, headache,
learning disorders, metabolic disorders, brain tumors, autism, tics, and
movement disorders. Since office practice is demanding and fast-paced,
practitioners must have access to current evaluations and treatment recommendations
in a format that lends itself to speedy review and retention, and increases
their confidence as principal care providers.
The goal of Pediatric Practice: Neurology is to write a comprehensive
and current text, and provide primary care providers and neurologists with
succinct authoritative reviews on the evaluation and treatment of a complete
list of common and less common child brain disorders. The book is designed
to meet the busy demands of a wide range of readers, including physicians
from all pediatric specialties, resident house staff, child and adult neurologists,
clinical laboratory technicians, and students.
The first section of the book, Evaluation, reviews the pediatric neurology
history and neurological examination and neuroimaging in the management
of pediatric neurological disease. The second section of the book, Common
Pediatric Neurologic Problems, reviews seizures and epilepsy, febrile seizures,
paroxysmal disorders, pediatric headache, ataxia, abnormalities of head
size, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, learning and language disorders,
cerebral palsy, and pediatric sleep medicine. In the third section, General
Neurologic Disorders, we review the evaluation and treatment of movement
and balance disorders, neuropathy, disorders of muscle and motor function,
neuroinfectious diseases, multiple sclerosis and white matter disorders,
stroke, traumatic brain injury, toxic and metabolic encephalopathies, genetic
testing for neurological disorders, metabolic disorders, inherited neurodegenerative
disorders, brain tumors,malformations of the nervous system in relation
to ontogenesis, autism, newborn neurology, disorders of vision and ocular
motility, the floppy infant syndrome, and coma. In summary, this book strives
to efficiently provide practical state-of-the-art pediatric neurological
advice to the busy physician.
Paul R. Carney and James D. Geyer