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Value of Inpatient Diagnostic CCTV‐EEG Monitoring in the Elderly
Author(s) -
Drury Ivo,
Selwa Linda M.,
Schuh Lori A.,
Kapur Jaideep,
Varma Navin,
Beydoun Ahmad,
Henry Thomas R.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
epilepsia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.687
H-Index - 191
eISSN - 1528-1167
pISSN - 0013-9580
DOI - 10.1111/j.1528-1157.1999.tb00825.x
Subject(s) - medicine , ictal , status epilepticus , electroencephalography , epilepsy , pediatrics , retrospective cohort study , emergency medicine , surgery , psychiatry
Summary:Purpose: To examine the outcome of inpatient diagnostic closed circuit TV‐EEG (CCTV‐EEG) monitoring in a consecutive series of elderly patients admitted to an adult epilepsy‐monitoring unit (EMU) over a continuous 6‐year period. Methods: Retrospective review of all admissions to a university hospital adult EMU. Those older than 60 years were identified. Patients who were monitored for status epilepticus were excluded. Data on duration of events, frequency 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 of 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 additional diagnostic information was gained from the admission. The other 10 patients, eight of whom had been treated with AEDs, were symptomatic during their admission, leading to a variety of neurologic but not epileptic, psychiatric, or other medical disorders, and allowing tapering of AEDs. Conclusions: In elderly patients with suspected epilepsy, CCTV‐EEG is a very useful diagnostic tool. In this series of 18, 10 patients were diagnosed with potentially treatable medical illnesses not responsive to AEDs.