Pediatric Neurology

Nilika Singhal, MD

Kendall B. Nash, MD

Pediatric neurology is a rapidly evolving field with new discoveries shaping clinical care regularly. We have all heard the old adage, “children are not little adults,” and nowhere is this more evident than in the field of child neurology. Neurological illness in a child manifests with unique signs and symptoms, necessitating an astute clinician who is in touch with advances in the field. In addition, our patients are among the most vulnerable—the nature of our work requires great curiosity, great compassion, and great drive on the part of diligent clinicians to diagnose and treat our patients. Our patients are also often unable to describe their experiences, leaving clinicians to perform the myriad of investigative and detective work they do. To that end, we present a collection of high-quality papers with the most current information across a broad swath of topics within pediatric neurology, written by internationally recognized experts in the field.

This issue is designed to provide readers with an overview of topics across a broad spectrum of neurologic disease in children. Here, we present a complete range of topics affecting the brain all the way down to the smallest nerve endings. We present advances in genetic epilepsies, neonatal seizures, infantile spasms, and other drug-resistant epilepsies. We present work on neurologic emergencies such as acute flaccid myelitis, FIRES (febrile infection-related epilepsy syndrome), and reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome. We present advances in disorders of the neuromuscular junction, myopathies, and movement disorders. We also present current and thorough reviews of neurocognitive sequalae of brain tumors, vascular malformations, and pseudotumor cerebri. Our papers are practically approachable and clinically useful, such as seen in our updates in treatment of pediatric headache, multiple sclerosis, Rasmussen's syndrome, and hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.

Further, as pediatric neurologists, we not only care for the child in front of us, but we care for the whole family as well. We recognize the toll this level of care can take on the most dedicated practitioners and applaud them for their dedication. We hope you will find this journal as exciting as we have. We truly enjoyed putting these papers together and thank our authors greatly for their contributions to our field. We also thank our editor-in-chief, Dr. Dave Greer, for inviting us to guest edit this pediatric-focused issue. He has been wonderfully supportive, enthusiastic, and engaged in the topic. We hope the readers of Seminars in Neurology find the papers beneficial in their scientific work and clinical practice.