Journal of cardiac surgery
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Forty-three patients undergoing repair of a thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm were monitored to evaluate spinal cord ischemia, as evidenced by somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs). All patients were operated on using left heart bypass. In 34 patients (80%), staged clamping was used. ⋯ No relationship could be demonstrated between the extinction time, the recovery time, or the duration of loss of evoked potentials with postoperative neurological outcome. Intraoperative monitoring of SEPs is a good indicator of spinal cord ischemia, although we found a 5% incidence of false negatives. SEP monitoring offers an improvement in surgical strategy, and allows safer operations for thoracoabdominal aneurysms.