Objective: To determine the usefulness of the electroencephalogram in the evaluation of infants admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit with recurrent apneas and bradycardias.

Design: A retrospective review.

Results: During the study period, ninety-four infants were evaluated for seizure activity. Twenty of these were prematurely born infants with recurrent apneas and bradycardias without clinically recognized seizures. The recordings were entirely normal in 10 cases, and in 9 showed interictal epileptiform discharges in excess of or in atypical locations than those expected for the gestational age at the time of the investigation. One had a burst-suppression pattern. None had electrographic seizures. All infants were free of sepsis and had normal biochemistry at the time of the EEG recordings. In no case did the EEG result lead to any change in clinical management.

Conclusion: Despite the limitations of our study design, we can conclude that the EEG is not a useful investigation when assessing prematurely born infants with recurrent apneas not associated with clinically recognized seizure activity.