Abstracts

Rationale: Non epileptic events (NEE) are quite common in children admitted for Video EEG (VEEG) monitoring. Previous pediatric studies have found NEE in 15 to 22% of the children admitted to epilepsy monitoring unit. Very few studies have looked in to the phenomenology of childhood NEE by developmental stages. We studied the clinical characteristics of NEE in children of different age groups.Methods: Medical records and VEEGs of all pediatric patients( up to 21 yrs) with NEE confirmed on VEEG monitoring in our hospital June 2000 to April 2010 were reviewed. Data was collected about age, gender, type of events, history of seizures, developmental delay and presence of abnormal EEG. Children were divided in to three age groups: Group A included children up to 5 years, Group B from 5 to 12 years and Group C from 12 to 21 yearsResults: Total 1046 pediatric patients underwent VEEG monitoring in the study period, of which 230 (22%) were suspected of having NEE. 187(81% of all suspected cases) were included for final analysis as 43 subjects didn t have their events captured during their stay. Majority of patients were in group A (80, 42.7%). The other two groups, Group B and C included 53 and 54 patients (28% each) respectively. Physiologic events were common in children younger than 5 years (55%), Behavioral events (49%) predominated in group B,but group C was dominated by psychogenic NEE(64 %). Male to female ratio was equal in group A and B (1.12 and 1.28 respectively) while majority were females in group C (64%). Sleep related events were recorded in 46 patients (24% of all events) especially more often in group A (37 %of all events in this group). A significant number of patients (26%) had history of either a single or multiple seizures in their lifetime, the highest being in group C (33%). 81 patients( 43%) had history of developmental delay including speech delay predominantly in group A (60% of them). Many of these children (74, 39%) had abnormal EEGs. Conclusions: We found that there NEE are common in the pediatric age group (22 % of all admissions) similar to previous reports. The type of events are quite distinct in different age groups ; physiologic events being common in children younger than 5yrs, behavioral events in school age children ( 5 to 12 yrs) and psychogenic in older adolescents (above 12 yrs ) . There were more females with NEE in the adolescents while this gender difference was not seen in the younger children (below 12 yrs). History of seizures and presence of abnormal EEG doesn t exclude NEE similar to that in adults.