24 hour ambulatory electroencephalographic monitoring in pediatrics.

Prolonged ambulatory electroencephalographic monitoring was evaluated in 38 children, aged five weeks to 20 years. Eleven children with known seizure disorders who also had additional episodic symptomatology of unknown etiology were monitored, in eight of these children the "spells" were recorded. For 38% of these cases (3/8) the symptoms were shown to be seizures, while for the other 62% the episodic symptomatology did not represent a seizure. In another 23 children without previously documented seizure disorders, the "spells" were recorded in 11 cases. Only two of these 11 (18%) children with episodic symptomatology were shown to have seizures. This study demonstrates the usefulness of outpatient electroencephalographic monitoring in pediatrics for evaluation of episodic symptomatology of unclear etiology.