ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: We performed this study to explore the various diagnostic roles of video-EEG monitoring (VEM) and to assess the outcome after VEM. METHODS: 1749 patients who underwent VEM in the adult epilepsy section were included. We classified purposes of VEM and assessed outcome after VEM or epilepsy surgery guided by VEM. The outcome was assessed according to seizure frequency during the previous 12 months from the day of follow-up evaluation. RESULTS: The purposes of VEM were presurgical evaluation (68.5%), confirmation of epilepsy (15%), classification of seizures (9.4%), diagnosis of pseudoseizures (5.5%), and detection of nonconvulsive status epilepticus (1.7%). The efficiency of VEM was 89.2%, highest for presurgical evaluation (97.1%) and lowest for confirmation of seizures (66.0%). The number of events detected and the number of days needed differed according to the purposes of VEM. Epilepsy surgery was performed in 629 patients. The outcome of patients with epilepsy surgery was significantly better compared with patients without surgery despite presurgical evaluation (p<0.0001). Various other illnesses with transient symptoms as well as various epileptic syndromes were diagnosed by VEM. Better outcomes were observed in patients in whom VEM was used for classification and confirmation of seizures compared with patients in whom VEM was used for presurgical evaluation. CONCLUSIONS: VEM is a useful tool for various purposes. The efficiency, number of events and days of VEM differed according to the purposes. Patient outcome was also dependent on the purpose of the VEM as well as on treatment modalities.