Purpose: To examine the outcome of inpatient diagnostic closed circuit TV-E
EG (CCTV-EEG) monitoring in a consecutive series of elderly patients admitt
ed to an adult epilepsy-monitoring unit (EMU) over a continuous 6-year peri
od.
Methods: Retrospective review of all admissions to a university hospital ad
ult EMU. Those older than 60 years were identified. Patients who were monit
ored for status epilepticus were excluded. Data on duration of events, freq
uency of events, physical examination, medications, preadmission EEG, brain
imaging, length of stay, and interictal and ictal EEG were obtained.
Results: Of the 18 patients admitted for monitoring only, mean age was 69.5
years (range, 60-90 years). Mean length stay was 4.3 days (range, 2-9 days
). Five patients had complex partial seizures recorded. Three patients, all
treated with antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), had no spells recorded, and no ad
ditional diagnostic information was gained from the admission. The other 10
patients, eight of whom had been treated with AEDs, were symptomatic durin
g their admission, leading to a variety of neurologic but not epileptic, ps
ychiatric, or other medical disorders, and allowing tapering of AEDs.
Conclusions: Tn elderly patients with suspected epilepsy, CCTV-EEG is a ver
y useful diagnostic tool. In this series of 18, 10 patients were diagnosed
with potentially treatable medical illnesses not responsive to AEDs.