Success of Ambulatory EEG in Children

SUMMARYContinuous ambulatory EEG (AEEG) monitoring is a methodused to (1) determine seizure type and location of seizure onset, and (2) todiscriminate between epileptic and nonepileptic events. This study wasperformed to determine how successful AEEG would be in recording seizures whenthe events were reported to occur at least 3 days per week. AEEGs of childrenwho were patients at Children’s Hospital Oakland between December 1993and June 1997 were reviewed to see why the recordings were performed and todetermine whether typical seizures were recorded. Children who had seizurelikeevents needed to have typical spells 3 days or more per week to justifyobtaining AEEG. Most AEEGs were performed to discriminate between epilepticand nonepileptic seizures. A total of 167 children underwent AEEG recording.Ten were recorded to determine whether they were having frequent subtleseizures or frequent interictal epileptiform discharges. The remaining 157patients had discrete events. A total of 140 children (89%) had their typicalspells recorded. A total of 107 of these children (76%) had nonepilepticevents. Average duration of recording was 1.9 days. AEEG is very successful inrecording children’s seizurelike events when parents report events occurat least 3 days per week. The procedure is well tolerated and there are fewtechnical problems that prolong recordingtime.