New Surgical Director of Epilepsy Joins Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Pediatric neurosurgeon Virendra “Viren” Desai, MD, has joined Children’s Hospital Los Angeles as Surgical Director of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center.

Dr. Desai, who joined CHLA July 1, is an expert in advanced surgical techniques for children with epilepsy—including responsive neurostimulation (RNS), minimally invasive laser ablation, and robot-assisted stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG), which helps pinpoint the origin of seizures without open brain surgery. He also specializes in procedures for children with movement disorders, including deep brain stimulation and selective dorsal rhizotomy.

“We are pleased to welcome Dr. Desai to the Division of Neurosurgery and the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at CHLA,” says Susan Durham, MD, MS, Chief of Neurosurgery and Co-Director of the Neurological Institute at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. “Dr. Desai brings extensive experience and state-of-the-art techniques not only in epilepsy surgery, but also in surgery for pediatric functional and movement disorders. His arrival further strengthens our leading role in providing world-class care for children with epilepsy and movement disorders.”

The Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles offers the most advanced, highest-quality pediatric epilepsy care in Southern California. The Level 4 Center—the highest certification available from the National Association of Epilepsy Centers—offers multidisciplinary, collaborative care that is individually tailored to each child.

Surgical treatments are a key part of that care. For more than a third of children with epilepsy, medications are not enough to control their seizures. CHLA performs more than 75 epilepsy surgeries each year and has one of the highest seizure-free rates after surgery in the country.

In addition, the Movement Disorders Clinic at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is one of the few programs in the nation to offer specialty-trained staff and a wide range of medical and surgical treatments for movement disorders, including cerebral palsy.

Dr. Desai previously served as Director of Pediatric Surgical Epilepsy and Functional Programs at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital. There, he helped to build and rapidly grow programs to offer surgeries previously unavailable to many children. These included minimally invasive and robot-assisted procedures, deep brain stimulation and newer epilepsy approaches such as RNS, which involves implanting a small device in the skull that can detect and stop seizures before they begin.

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Desai graduated from medical school at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio. He completed a neurological surgery residency at Houston Methodist Hospital and a pediatric neurosurgery fellowship at Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis. He is Board-certified in both pediatric neurosurgery and neurosurgery.

Dr. Desai is the author of more than 60 peer-reviewed publications and is passionate about both clinical research and education. At CHLA, he will also serve as the Residency Director and Associate Fellowship Director for the Division of Neurosurgery, where he will enhance CHLA’s training of the next generation of pediatric neurosurgeons.