Neuropediatrics is a branch of health care that involves the diagnosis and treatment of congenital and acquired diseases of the central and peripheral nervous systems in children and adolescents. In history, as the medical care opportunities for severe neural injuries were minimal, children with brain damage were usually rejected and many of them died early from infections, inappropriate treatment, and neglect. Since the middle of the twentieth century, due to the development of neuropathology and advanced brain diagnostic tools, neural damage during childbirth was for the first time defined as the most fundamental cause of cerebral injury, bringing attention to the focus of brain damage. Since then, novel scientific approaches have made extraordinary improvements in the prevention, diagnosis, and therapy of infants and children with neural injuries. However, there are still major scientific, ethical, and therapeutic challenges for the future, especially in prenatal diagnosis, neonatology, intensive care, therapy, and more. This book offers comprehensive knowledge about the current state of the art in neuropediatrics, concentrating on the most significant evidence-based advances in this important field.

Cortical maturation is associated with a series of developmental programs encompassing neuronal and network-driven patterns. Thus, voltage-gated and synapse-driven ionic currents are very different in immature and adult neurons with slower kinetics in the former than in the latter. These features are neuron and developmental stage dependent. GABA, which is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in adult brain, depolarizes and excites immature neurons and its actions are thought to exert a trophic role in developmental processes. Networks follow a parallel sequence with voltage-gated calcium currents followed by calcium plateaux and synapse-driven patterns in vitro. In vivo, early activity exhibits discontinuous temporal organization with alternating bursts. Early cortical patterns are driven by sensory input from the periphery providing a basis for activity-dependent modulation of the cortical networks formation. These features and notably the excitatory GABA underlie the high susceptibility of immature neurons to seizures. Alterations of these sequences play a central role in developmental malformations, notably migration disorders and associated neurological sequelae.

The child is neither an adult miniature nor an immature human being: at each age, it expresses specific abilities that optimize adaptation to its environment and development of new acquisitions. Diseases in children cover all specialties encountered in adulthood, and neurology involves a particularly large area, ranging from the brain to the striated muscle, the generation and functioning of which require half the genes of the whole genome and a majority of mitochondrial ones. Human being nervous system is sensitive to prenatal aggression, is particularly immature at birth and development may be affected by a whole range of age-dependent disorders distinct from those that occur in adults. Even diseases more often encountered in adulthood than childhood may have specific expression in the developing nervous system. The course of chronic neurological diseases beginning before adolescence remains distinct from that of adult pathology – not only from the cognitive but also motor perspective, right into adulthood, and a whole area is developing for adult neurologists to care for these children with persisting neurological diseases when they become adults. Just as pediatric neurology evolved as an identified specialty as the volume and complexity of data became too much for the general pediatician or the adult neurologist to master, the discipline has now continued to evolve into so many subspecialties, such as epilepsy, neuromuscular disease, stroke, malformations, neonatal neurology, metabolic diseases, etc., that the general pediatric neurologist no longer can reasonably possess in-depth expertise in all areas, particularly in dealing with complex cases. Subspecialty expertise thus is provided to some trainees through fellowship programmes following a general pediatric neurology residency and many of these fellowships include training in research. Since the infectious context, the genetic background and medical practice vary throughout the world, this diversity needs to be represented in a pediatric neurology textbook. Taken together, and although brain malformations (H. Sarnat & P. Curatolo, 2007) and oncology (W. Grisold & R. Soffietti) are covered in detail in other volumes of the same series and therefore only briefly addressed here, these considerations justify the number of volumes, and the number of authors who contributed from all over the world. Experts in the different subspecialties also contributed to design the general framework and contents of the book. Special emphasis is given to the developmental aspect, and normal development is reminded whenever needed – brain, muscle and the immune system. The course of chronic diseases into adulthood and ethical issues specific to the developing nervous system are also addressed. - A volume in the Handbook of Clinical Neurology series, which has an unparalleled reputation as the world's most comprehensive source of information in neurology - International list of contributors including the leading workers in the field - Describes the advances which have occurred in clinical neurology and the neurosciences, their impact on the understanding of neurological disorders and on patient care

Epilepsy continues to be a major health problem throughout the planet, affecting millions of people, mainly in developing countries where parasitic zoonoses are more common and cysticercosis, as a leading cause, is endemic. There is epidemiological evidence for an increasing prevalence of epilepsy throughout the world, and evidence of increasing morbidity and mortality in many countries as a consequence of higher incidence of infectious diseases, head injury and stroke. We decided to edit this book because we identified another way to approach this problem, covering aspects of the treatment of epilepsy based on the most recent technological results "in vitro" from developed countries, and the basic treatment of epilepsy at the primary care level in rural areas of South Africa. Therefore, apart from the classic issues that cannot be missing in any book about epilepsy, we introduced novel aspects related with epilepsy and neurocysticercosis, as a leading cause of epilepsy in developing countries. Many experts from the field of epilepsy worked hard on this publication to provide valuable updated information about the treatment of epilepsy and other related problems.

Since 1975, Dr. Kenneth Swaiman's classic text has been the reference of choice for authoritative guidance in pediatric neurology, and the 6th Edition continues this tradition of excellence with thorough revisions that bring you fully up to date with all that's new in the field. Five new sections, 62 new chapters, 4 new editors, and a reconfigured format make this a comprehensive and clearly-written resource for the experienced clinician as well as the physician-in-training. - Nearly 3,000 line drawings, photographs, tables, and boxes highlight the text, clarify key concepts, and make it easy to find information quickly.

For fifty years, experienced clinicians and physicians in training have relied on Swaiman's cornerstone text as their #1 source for authoritative guidance in pediatric neurology. Swaiman's Pediatric Neurology: Principles and Practice, 7th Edition, continues this tradition of excellence under the expert editorial direction of Drs. Stephen Ashwal and Phillip L. Pearl, along with a team of key leaders in the field who serve as associate and section editors in their areas of expertise. Thorough revisions—including new chapters, new videos, new editors, and expanded content—bring you up to date with this dynamic field. - Contains new sections on global child neurology and environment and brain development and a greatly expanded section on neurogenetics, in addition to new chapters on autoimmune epilepsies, immune-mediated movement disorders, and more. - Offers expanded online content, including additional figures, tables, and text, as well as new personal introductory videos by many chapter authors. - Covers new, emerging, or controversial topics such as COVID-19, teleneurology, environment and brain development, immune-mediated disorders of the nervous system, functional neurological disorders in children, nonverbal learning disorders, and the pharmacological and future genetic treatment of neurodevelopmental disabilities. - Provides authoritative coverage of perinatal acquired and congenital disorders, neurodevelopmental disabilities, extensive sections on pediatric epilepsy and movement disorders, nonepileptiform paroxysmal disorders, and disorders of sleep. - Features nearly 3,000 line drawings, photographs, tables, and boxes that highlight the text, clarify key concepts, and make it easy to find information quickly.

This issue of Neurologic Clinics, guest edited by Drs. Gary D. Clark and James J. Riviello, will cover key topics in Pediatric Neurology. This issue is one of four selected each year by our series consulting editor, Dr. Randolph W. Evans. Topics discussed in this issue will include: The State of Child Neurology; The Financial Power of Neurology in a Major Children’s Hospital; Neurology in a Pandemic; Education: Training the Next Generation of Child Neurologists and Neurodevelopmental Disability Doctors, Student Education and Recruitment; Genetic Testing and Counseling in Child Neurology; Novel Treatments and Clinical Research in Child Neurology; Epilepsy: Novel Surgical Techniques and Monitoring; Epilepsy: Genetics; Epilepsy: Treatment of Epileptic Syndromes; Neuromodulation for Pediatric Epilepsy; Inflammatory Diseases of the Nervous System; Neurooncology; Neurocritical Care and Brain Monitoring; The Brain and Heart Disease in Children; Neurology of Sleep; and Evidence Based Protocols.