13/06/2023
What is the difference between a prolonged EEG and epilepsy monitoring in a comprehensive unit? 🤷🏻♀️
Visiting an Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) for 3-7 days can help in many ways.
Diagnostic Classification: It is possible to definitively determine whether you have epilepsy or not. Furthermore, diagnose the type of epilepsy or seizures you are experiencing and potentially classify a specific syndrome (more so in paediatric cases).
Quantification: Determining the number of seizures occurring within a 24hour period or over the duration of your stay is helpful, as some may pass unnoticed. This is also a beautiful comparative tool to see the drastic reduction in seizures or abnormal brain activity after specific medication changes or additions during your stay.
Trigger Identification: Different epilepsies have different triggers. This can make a dramatic change to quality of life when you know specifically what your trigger is. REMEMBER! Only 3 percent of people have photosensitive epilepsy.
Medication Adjustment: This is a safe and controlled environment to withdraw, change or add medications depending on the information we are needing to obtain throughout your stay.
Epilepsy Surgery: The first step is determining whether you are a candidate for epilepsy surgery (should your epilepsy be resistant to medication). Once this is confirmed, we use multiple tools and testing to determine the exact location of where the seizures are coming from for the surgeon to plan the procedure.
