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Neurophysiology
A guide for patients and carers
Can the EEG help with the decision about possible surgery for epilepsy?
Sometimes all of a person’s seizures are shown to originate in one particular area of the brain. If this is a very small area that can be safely removed by a neurosurgeon, the results of an operation can be very good. Many people become either entirely free of seizures or experience a reduction in the frequency and severity of attacks.
Deciding whether or not a person is likely to benefit from epilepsy surgery is a complicated and often quite lengthy process. It involves not only EEG and video-telemetry but also specialised brain scanning with MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and sometimes with other brain scans, as well as assessment of memory, language and other intellectual functions by a psychologist. All this information will be considered together with a detailed history of the epilepsy by a specialised epilepsy surgery team before a final decision about suitability for surgery can be made.
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Contents
- Introduction
- What is clinical neurophysiology?
- Who works in a neurophysiology department?
- What will happen in the clinical neurophysiology department?
- What is an EEG?
- Why is my doctor sending me for a sleep EEG?
- Can an EEG be carried on yound children and babies?
- What will the EEG show in someone with epilepsy?
- What is an ambulatory EEG?
- When is video-telemetry used?
- Can the EEG help with the decision about possible surgery for epilepsy?
- What are evoked potentials?
- What is evoked potential testing used for?
- What can I expect during the test?
- What is EMG and nerve conduction studies?
- EMG in measuring electrical activity of the muscles
- Summary
- Other organisations that may be able to help
