• Andrea O Rossetti and Jong-Woo Lee.
• Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland - andrea.rossetti@chuv.ch.
• Minerva Anestesiol. 2021 Oct 1; 87 (10): 1139-1145.

AbstractContinuous video-EEG (cEEG, lasting hours to several days) is increasingly used in ICU patients, as it is more sensitive than routine video-EEG (rEEG, lasting 20-30 min) to detect seizures or status epilepticus, and allows more frequent changes in therapeutic regimens. However, cEEG is more resource-consuming, and its relationship to outcome compared to repeated rEEG has only been formally assessed very recently in a randomized controlled trial, which did not show any significant difference in terms of long-term mortality or functional outcome. Awaiting more refined trials, it seems therefore that using repeated rEEG in ICU patients may represent a reasonable alternative in resource-limited settings. Prolonged EEG has been used recently in patients with severe COVID-19 infection, the proportion of seizures seems albeit relatively low, and similar to ICU patients with medical conditions. As a timely EEG recording is recommended in the ICU in any case, recent technical developments may ease its use in clinical practice.

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