Aurora BayCare Medical Center

NeuroCare Brain & Spine Center

What is Long Term Epilepsy Monitoring…

Long term epilepsy monitoring (LTEM) involves the simultaneous use of video and electroencephalography (EEG) recordings of a patient during an inpatient hospital stay. Although prolonged standard EEG and ambulatory EEG recordings also provide useful information, simultaneous video-EEG monitoring provides the most detailed information regarding brainwaves and behavior during seizures.

Aurora BayCare’s coordinated team of experts work together to evaluate and treat epilepsy patients who have uncontrolled seizures despite medical treatment. As only two-thirds of epilepsy patients achieve good seizure control with anti-epileptic medications, neurosurgery may be a viable option for controlling seizures or curing epilepsy.

The results of monitoring help determine if surgery is a viable treatment or if other options should be considered. According to the International League Against Epilepsy (2002), “The key to epilepsy surgery is localization of seizure focus.”

Epilepsy monitoring and surgery is a widely accepted approach to the management of patients with intractable epilepsy. Since Victor Horsely’s first craniotomy in 1886 for a cerebral tumor producing seizures, thousands of these procedures have been performed at over 100 centers in the United States and around the world. With the appropriate evaluation and selection of potential surgery candidates with uncontrolled epilepsy, approximately 70% of patients become seizure free and 85% experience a significant reduction in seizure frequency.

Advantages of LTEM

• Establish the diagnosis of epilepsy
  • In most epilepsy centers, about 1 in 4 patients who have seizure-like events that are unresponsive to medication do not have epilepsy.
•   Specifically identify the seizure type
  • Some seizures medications are designed to treat certain types of seizures.  
• Lateralize and localize seizure onset
  • Long term monitoring can help identify the brain area where your seizures begin. Lateralization and localization (finding the side and area) of seizure focus is crucial for the surgical treatment of epilepsy. Seizures are videotaped because behavior during seizures can also help lateralize and localize seizures focus. 
• Determine seizure frequency
• Video-EEG monitoring can identify how often you are having seizures. Frequently patients have seizures and don’t know unless someone tells them.

NeuroCare Brain and Spine Centerâ„¢
(920) 288-8020
Toll-free (877) 577-5800
2845 Greenbrier Road
P.O. Box 8900
Green Bay, WI 54308-8900