Objective: The goal of this paper is to investigate the limits of EEG sensor miniaturization in a set-up consisting of multiple galvanically isolated EEG units to record interictal epileptiform discharges, referred to as `spikes', in people with epilepsy. Approach: A dataset of high-density EEG recordings (257 channels) was used to emulate local EEG sensor units with short inter-electrode distances. A computationally efficient sensor selection and interictal spike detection algorithm was developed and used to assess the influence of the inter-electrode distance and the number of such EEG units on spike detection performance. Signal-to-noise ratio, correlation with a clinical-grade IED detector and Cohen's kappa coefficient of agreement were used to quantify performance. Bayesian statistics were used to confirm the statistical significance of the observed results. Main Results: We found that EEG recording equipment should be specifically designed to measure the small signal power at short inter-electrode distance by providing an input referred noise $<300$ nV. We also found that an inter-electrode distance of minimum 5 cm between electrodes in a setup with a minimum of two EEG units is required to obtain near equivalent performance in interictal spike detection to standard EEG. Significance: These findings provide design guidelines for miniaturizing EEG systems for long term ambulatory monitoring of interictal spikes in epilepsy patients