• Giuseppe Maria Della Pepa, Vito Stifano, Quintino Giorgio D'Alessandris, Grazia Menna, Benedetta Burattini, Michele Di Domenico, Alessandro Izzo, Manuela D'Ercole, Liverana Lauretti, Alessandro Olivi, and Nicola Montano.
• Department of Neurosurgery, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy.
• Neurosurgery. 2022 Sep 1; 91 (3): 406-413.

BackgroundIntraoperative neuromonitoring is crucial for facial nerve preservation in cerebellopontine angle (CPA) surgery. Among the available techniques, the role of intraoperative corticobulbar facial motor evoked potentials (FMEPs) is unclear.ObjectiveTo evaluate the significance of intraoperative FMEPs as indicators for early and late postoperative facial nerve function (FNF) in CPA tumor resection and the feasibility of their integration with standard monitoring techniques.MethodsAn institutional series of 83 patients who underwent surgery under intraoperative monitoring for CPA extra-axial tumor resection was reported. A pair of needle electrodes was used to record FMEP from orbicularis oculi (OOc) and orbicularis oris (OOr) muscles at baseline, at the end of surgery and minimum values recorded. From FMEP amplitudes, minimum-to-baseline amplitude ratio (MBR), final-to-baseline amplitude ratio (FBR), and recovery value, intended as FBR minus MBR, were calculated. These indices were correlated with early and late postoperative FNF.ResultsOur analysis demonstrated that higher FBR (both from OOc and OOr) and MBR (from OOr only) were associated with a good early and late FNF; a higher MBR from OOc was significantly associated with a good late FNF. The most accurate index in predicting early FNF was FBR measured from OOr with a cutoff of 35.56%, whereas the most accurate index in predicting late FNF was FBR as measured from OOc with a cutoff of 14.29%.ConclusionOur study confirmed that FMEPs are reliable predictors of early and late postoperative FNF in CPA surgery and could be easily integrated with standard intraoperative neuromonitoring techniques.Copyright © Congress of Neurological Surgeons 2022. All rights reserved.

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