A retrospective study of the correlation between duration of monitoring in the epilepsy monitoring unit and diagnostic yield

•Prolonging duration of monitoring is associated with an increased yield of a conclusive diagnostic vEEG studies with over one-third of patients receiving their diagnosis beyond 7 days of monitoring.•In the cohort with duration of monitoring >7 days, patients with previous abnormal routine EEG, previous vEEG monitoring, first event before day 5, and ≥1 event recorded during monitoring were more likely to have conclusive studies.•Prolonging the duration of monitoring can assist with adequate capture of different semiological manifestations of seizures, aiding lateralization and localization of seizure onset, and identify situations with comorbid psychogenic nonepileptic seizures.