Duration of EEG and Treatment Outcomes in Critical Care (DuraEEG)

Background: Electroencephalography (EEG) is a valuable diagnostic tool recording real-time bio-electric neuronal activity of the brain. This allows the detection or exclusion of several aetiologies of altered mental or neurological status, including life-threatening neurological emergencies, such as status epilepticus (SE) or encephalopathies accompanying a variety of primary diseases. 

Objectives: This retrospective, observational, single-center cohort study aims to investigate the optimal duration of EEG monitoring, particularly in relation to the time required for diagnostic workup leading to the initiation and modification of real-world treatment regimens of adult critical care patients admitted to a specialized unit for neurological monitoring and CVEM. Subsequently, the study seeks to compare the diagnostic yield of different EEG duration intervals to the initiation, changes and timing of treatment regimes.

Methods: We will retrospectively extract demographic, clinical, laboratory, and electrophysiological data from the digital medical records, the electrophysiological and microbiologic database of all consecutive adult patients from 2014 to 2025, who received a Spot-EEG or continuous EEG and were admitted to the hospital for monitoring and/or treatment at the University Hospital Basel. The already collected and reviewed data from the electrophysical database will be evaluated again and compared with the reports. Further therapy related data will be compared to the electrophysiological data.