Asian spine journal
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Asian spine journal · Jun 2007
The utility of somatosensory evoked potential monitoring during cervical spine surgery: how often does it prompt intervention and affect outcome?
Retrospective review of the results of somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEP) performed in cervical spine surgery. ⋯ SSEP monitoring in this surgical population proved sensitive to perioperative factors which may increase the risk of postoperative neurologic deficit, and probably prevented neurological deficits in 15 of 809 patients (1.9%). Improvement in data following intervention appears to correlate well with unchanged neurologic status. Experience with intraoperative monitoring in this patient series has led to incorporation of these techniques as a standard of care in cervical spine surgeries performed by this surgeon.