Diagnostic value of short duration outpatient video electroencephalographic monitoring

There is little published on the diagnostic value of short duration outpati ent video electroencephalographic (VEEG) monitoring in children. The author s performed a prospective study on 37 patients (mean age = 10.4 years), wit h daily paroxysmal events who underwent short duration (mean = 3.2 hours) o utpatient VEEG monitoring. Events were detected in 23 patients (62.2%), and a change in management as a result of outpatient VEEG monitoring was docum ented in 25 patients (67.6%). Despite the short duration of the outpatient VEEG in this study, the detection rate was comparable with the previously r eported studies with longer duration monitoring. The authors found it conve nient for the patient and less costly. The study demonstrated that short du ration outpatient VEEG monitoring was able to differentiate between seizure s and nonseizures in 11 patients (78.6%) and resulted in changing seizure c lassification in five patients (62.5%), and in selecting epilepsy surgery c andidates in nine patients (60%), Short duration outpatient VEEG is useful as a diagnostic tool in patients with daily paroxysmal events, particularly in identifying nonepileptic events. (C) 1999 by Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.