Abstract
Diagnostic methods of the central nervous system (CNS) dramatically changed in 1970s by invention of computed tomography. Physicians presumed what was happening in the brain indirectly with various tools before then. Electroencephalography (EEG) had been one of them since Hans Berger invented EEG in 1920s. EEG was one of the routines for disorders of the CNS. However, EEG gradually strayed away from routine diagnostic works especially after introduction of magnetic resonance imaging. Our hospital performed 1743 cases of EEG in 2016. Sixty-eight percent among them were ordered from Departments of Pediatric Neurology and Epileptology to see effectiveness of anti-epileptic drugs, investigate seizure foci, and for pre/post epilepsy surgery. On the other hand, Department of Neurosurgery ordered only 3%, which were probably ordered to differentiate if those patients had epilepsy or not. Capturing seizure semiology and ictal EEG simultaneously by long-term video-EEG monitoring (LTM) is also important for expanding clinical EEG. EEG technicians in our hospital are independently running LTM, and then the burden of physicians has been greatly reduced. However, young busy neurosurgeons do not have enough time to review results of LTM. Then a training system should be reconsidered and include time for review of LTM to expand clinical EEG in our future.
Published Version
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