Intraoperative Spinal Cord and Nerve Root Monitoring: A Hospital Survey and Review

Abstract

Intraoperative monitoring (IOM) of spinal cord and nerve root injury through somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEP), transcranial motor evoked potentials (TcMEP), spontaneous electromyography (sEMG), and triggered electromyography (tEMG) modalities is vital during spinal surgery. However, there are currently no practice guidelines or practice patterns for the utilization of unimodal and multimodal IOM for specific surgeries. This study reviews IOM modalities and documents practice patterns of spine surgeons at our single-center tertiary hospital about their use of various IOM modalities on 23 spinal procedures. As different intraoperative monitoring modalities have shown to have different sensitivities and specificities, devising practice guidelines for IOM utilization in specific spinal procedures should be considered.