Home-video observation of seizures in children with epilepsy—impact on quality of family life

Many parents of children with epilepsy fear that their child might be seriously hurt by seizures and the fear is even worse if parents are unable to observe children’s seizures during sleep. If children have a room of their own, the parents will frequently peep in to observe the child’s sleep, but more often the child is made to sleep in the parents’ room or bed. Recently we have advised parents of children with frequent seizures to use an observation system to monitor the seizures at home. The system (Philips VSS 2285/00T) consists of a video camera in the child’s bedroom and a TV monitor located near the parents, e.g. in the parents’ bedroom, living-room or the kitchen. All equipment has been prescribed by paediatricians and occupational therapists at the National Centre for Epilepsy to patients living all over Norway. Telephone calls after installation at home have given us the impression that most parents used the system and we decided to investigate if the parents were satisfied, if the equipment had been of any help, and if so, in what way.