What happens when patients are admitted for epilepsy monitoring?
After being admitted to the hospital in the morning, patients are connected to scalp electrodes, escorted to a monitoring room on the Neurology floor and connected to the video-EEG monitoring equipment. The equipment receives the EEG signal, converts it to a digital signal and records it, along with a digital video image. The electroencephalogram and the video are recorded during several days continuously. During epilepsy monitoring, patients’ medication is decreased or sometimes discontinued altogether, in order to increase the probability of recording a number of seizures. After the monitoring period, the neuropsychologist, neurologist and neurosurgeon review the video-EEG results, along with neuropsychological and neuro-imaging test results, to decide whether patients might benefit from surgery. Patients are informed of the results either before being discharged or during a subsequent appointment. Patients maintain contact with their referring physicians throughout and following the
