Recording the changes in the brain’s natural electrical activity is a well-established way of diagnosing neurological disease and monitoring the progress of treatment. The electroencephalograph, (commonly referred to as EEG) has been a key noninvasive tool in medicine since the 1920’s when it was first described in humans by Dr. Hans Berger.
In today’s medicine, the EEG is commonly used to diagnose seizure disorders (such as epilepsy), assess neurological injury, plan surgery, assess brain integrity following injury or stroke, and assess sleep problems. Typically, EEGs are performed by neurologists at the request of the patient’s personal physician or pediatrician. EEGs can be performed on an outpatient basis in a neurologist’s office or at an EEG clinic, or in an inpatient hospital setting. Routine EEGs typically involve recording times between 20 to 40 minutes. Longer recordings are done for diagnosing sleep disorders or for planning neurological surgery. For more information on specific medical conditions where EEG recordings are commonly used, go to the Patient Resources List page.
EGI’s line of digital EEG systems provides two key innovations that improve patient comfort and diagnostic yield. EGI’s Geodesic EEG Systems are painless because they use the HydroCel™ Geodesic Sensor Net (known as the “Net”), which is an innovative technology that allows EEG electrodes to be applied quickly and without painful scalp abrasion. The result of using EGI’s Net is increased patient comfort and reduced overall procedure time. Even children—who usually resist the “scrape and paste” technique that traditional methods use to apply EEG electrodes—find that the EGI Net makes having an EEG much easier to take, and some find it to be almost fun. To see the procedure for having an EEG done using an EGI Net, view the Pediatric Net Application Video.
Pediatric Net Application Video
Because the electrodes of EGI Nets can be applied so quickly, neurologists can easily record EEG using a much larger number of electrodes. This technique, which is called dEEG (or high resolution EEG), helps neurologists make sure that all the clinically relevant information is captured during an exam. By recording from electrodes that are spread over the whole head of a patient, a comprehensive picture of the brain’s electrical activity is generated. The additional information that is gained from these comprehensive pictures often provides key insights for neurologists as they diagnose the condition of their patients and plan their treatment.
To find neurologists and other medical professionals who use the EGI Net for routine screening exams or have advanced dEEG capabilities, go to the Where to Find page. To learn more about how dEEG is being used, go to the Advanced EEG in the News page. To learn more about cutting edge research being done with dEEG, go to the Publications page.
