Advice to Patients Attending

All of the procedures that we undertake are totally painless and a description of each procedure follows:

A Routine vEEG is a test for which we place a stretchy cap containing about 24 recording electrodes onto your head. Some water-based jelly is inserted into each electrode and you are made comfortable while the recording takes place. Once set up, a routine recording will take about 20 minutes and if you feel drowsy during the procedure, that is fine. There is absolutely no pain and no after effects. During the recording, you may be asked to hyperventilate (deep breathe) for about three minutes and near the end of the recording, a bright flashing light may be placed in front of you. If you find the light unpleasant, it will not be continued but many patients report a pleasant relaxing feeling from it.

In the case of children, we normally manage the vEEG with parental support, ie the child sitting on parent's knees. If you do bring a child for EEG, please do not bring any other children as it is absolutely crucial that there are no distractions during the EEG. You could bring their favorite book, toy or even DVD and between us, we can usually entertain them while the recording takes place.

In about 10% of cases, children will simply not co-operate. In such cases, we will arrange a repeat date with you and try again after sedation which will be arranged by your refering Doctor.

If you are an adult, please do bring another adult. If it is possible to bring someone who had witnessed any of your attacks or problems that have required the vEEG, that would be extremely useful in terms of our being able to obtain a clear description of the events. Please do not bring more than one other adult as too many people in the room can be distracting.


A Sleep-deprived vEEG is usually undertaken after a Routine vEEG has not provided the level of required information. This is identical to a Routine vEEG except that we ask you to take 3-4 hours less sleep than usual on the night prior to coming along. Recording the vEEG during sleep-deprivation and during light sleep may add further valuable information to the recording and you should allow 60-120 minutes of total time here (depends on if/how quickly you become drowsy).

There are some risks associated with Sleep-deprivation and your referring Doctor will explain those risks to you in full prior to referring you - you may be asked to sign a Consent Form during that discussion.


Video recording. All of the EEGs undertaken here also include video so that when we are replaying the EEG for reporting purposes, we may observe the patient's general state alongside the EEG. These videos are not retained unless any sort of clinical event takes place as they are simply too large to store indefinately.


Medication. If you, the patient or the child patient is taking any prescribed medicines, these should not be stopped or altered in any way whatsoever.