Video-EEG monitoring: safety and adverse events in 507 consecutive patients.

Purpose: Video-electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring plays a central role in the presurgical evaluation of medically refractory epilepsies and the diagnosis of nonepileptic attack disorders (NEADs). The aim of this study was to analyze safety and adverse events (AEs) during video-EEG monitoring.

Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 596 video-EEG sessions in 507 patients (233 men, mean age 36 years, standard deviation = 14, range 9-80 years) within a 6-year period.

Myoclonic status epilepticus in juvenile myoclonic epilepsy.

Background: Myoclonic status epilepticus (MSE) is rarely found in juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) and its clinical features are not well described. We aimed to analyze MSE incidence, precipitating factors and clinical course by studying patients with JME from a large outpatient epilepsy clinic.

Methods: We retrospectively screened all patients with JME treated at the Department of Neurology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria between 1970 and 2007 for a history of MSE.

Asymmetric seizure termination in primary and secondary generalized tonic-clonic seizures.

Purpose: In temporal lobe epilepsies an asymmetric termination (AST) of the clonic phase of secondary generalized tonic-clonic seizures (sGTCS) reliably lateralizes the side of seizure onset. The last clonic activity occurs ipsilateral to the side of the seizure onset zone. We compared the prevalence and lateralizing value of AST in sGTCS of frontal and temporal lobe origin as well as in primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures (pGTCS).