Much of the literature examining optimal recording duration comes from inpatient epilepsy monitoring units (EMUs) and suggests that capture of first event occurs between 2 and 3 days (48 and 72 hours) of recording. A long‐standing issue between epileptologists is determining the optimal duration of EEG recording to capture one of these clinical events. 2 However, most prolonged video EEG monitoring studies are ordered in the hopes of recording at least one of the patient's typical ictal events.

Extending monitoring provides a greater diagnostic yield over 20–30‐minute routine studies 1 and increases the likelihood of detecting interictal epileptiform abnormalities such as significant spikes or sharp waves. The gold standard of epilepsy diagnosis is simultaneous EEG recording with time‐locked video monitoring of clinical events.