Minimum standards for inpatient long-term video-EEG monitoring: A clinical practice guideline of the international league against epilepsy and international federation of clinical neurophysiology

The objective of this clinical practice guideline is to provide recommendations on the indications and minimum standards for inpatient long-term video-electroencephalographic monitoring (LTVEM). The Working Group of the International League Against Epilepsy and the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology develop guidelines aligned with the Epilepsy Guidelines Task Force. We reviewed published evidence using The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) statement. We found limited high-level evidence aimed at specific aspects of diagnosis for LTVEM performed to evaluate patients with seizures and nonepileptic events (see Table S1). For classification of evidence, we used the Clinical Practice Guideline Process Manual of the American Academy of Neurology. We formulated recommendations for the indications, technical requirements, and essential practice elements of LTVEM to derive minimum standards used in the evaluation of patients with suspected epilepsy using GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation). Further research is needed to obtain evidence about long-term outcome effects of LTVEM and establish its clinical utility.(c) 2021 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology, Inc. and International League Against Epilepsy. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

The objective of this clinical practice guideline is to provide recommendations on the indications and minimum standards for inpatient long-term video-electroencephalographic monitoring (LTVEM). The review of published evidence using The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) statement found limited high-level evidence. Recommendations were formulated for the indications, technical requirements, and essential practice elements of LTVEM. Further research is needed to obtain evidence about long-term outcome effects of LTVEM and establish its clinical utility.