Monitoring for Spine and Spinal Cord Surgery

Abstract

Injuries of the spine and nerve root may occur during spine or spinal cord surgery, which can induce serious neurological deficits. Intraoperative monitoring plays important roles in monitoring the nerve function in various surgical manipulations, such as surgical positioning, mechanical compression, and tumor removal. This monitoring issues a warning to neuronal injuries at an early stage, and surgeons are able to prevent postoperative complications. The appropriate monitoring systems should be chosen with compatibility to the disease, surgical procedure, and lesion localization. The team should share the significance of monitoring and understand the timing of stimulation to perform a safe surgery. In this paper, we overview various intraoperative monitoring techniques and pitfalls in spine and spinal cord surgeries based on cases from our hospital.