Browsing by Subject "Evoked Potentials, Motor"

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    ItemOpen Access
    Neuroanesthesia Guidelines for Optimizing Transcranial Motor Evoked Potential Neuromonitoring During Deformity and Complex Spinal Surgery: A Delphi Consensus Study.
    (Spine, 2020-07) Walker, Corey T; Kim, Han Jo; Park, Paul; Lenke, Lawrence G; Weller, Mark A; Smith, Justin S; Nemergut, Edward C; Sciubba, Daniel M; Wang, Michael Y; Shaffrey, Christopher; Deviren, Vedat; Mummaneni, Praveen V; Chang, Joyce M; Mummaneni, Valli P; Than, Khoi D; Berjano, Pedro; Eastlack, Robert K; Mundis, Gregory M; Kanter, Adam S; Okonkwo, David O; Shin, John H; Lewis, Jason M; Koski, Tyler; Hoh, Daniel J; Glassman, Steven D; Vinci, Susan B; Daniels, Alan H; Clavijo, Claudia F; Turner, Jay D; McLawhorn, Marc; Uribe, Juan S

    Study design

    Expert opinion-modified Delphi study.

    Objective

    We used a modified Delphi approach to obtain consensus among leading spinal deformity surgeons and their neuroanesthesiology teams regarding optimal practices for obtaining reliable motor evoked potential (MEP) signals.

    Summary of background data

    Intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring of transcranial MEPs provides the best method for assessing spinal cord integrity during complex spinal surgeries. MEPs are affected by pharmacological and physiological parameters. It is the responsibility of the spine surgeon and neuroanesthesia team to understand how they can best maintain high-quality MEP signals throughout surgery. Nevertheless, varying approaches to neuroanesthesia are seen in clinical practice.

    Methods

    We identified 19 international expert spinal deformity treatment teams. A modified Delphi process with two rounds of surveying was performed. Greater than 50% agreement on the final statements was considered "agreement"; >75% agreement was considered "consensus."

    Results

    Anesthesia regimens and protocols were obtained from the expert centers. There was a large amount of variability among centers. Two rounds of consensus surveying were performed, and all centers participated in both rounds of surveying. Consensus was obtained for 12 of 15 statements, and majority agreement was obtained for two of the remaining statements. Total intravenous anesthesia was identified as the preferred method of maintenance, with few centers allowing for low mean alveolar concentration of inhaled anesthetic. Most centers advocated for <150 μg/kg/min of propofol with titration to the lowest dose that maintains appropriate anesthesia depth based on awareness monitoring. Use of adjuvant intravenous anesthetics, including ketamine, low-dose dexmedetomidine, and lidocaine, may help to reduce propofol requirements without negatively effecting MEP signals.

    Conclusion

    Spine surgeons and neuroanesthesia teams should be familiar with methods for optimizing MEPs during deformity and complex spinal cases. Although variability in practices exists, there is consensus among international spinal deformity treatment centers regarding best practices.

    Level of evidence

    5.
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    ItemOpen Access
    Noninvasive Detection of Motor-Evoked Potentials in Response to Brain Stimulation Below the Noise Floor-How Weak Can a Stimulus Be and Still Stimulate.
    (Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual International Conference, 2018-07) Goetz, SM; Li, Z; Peterchev, AV
    Motor-evoked potentials (MEP) are one of the most important responses to brain stimulation, such as supra-threshold transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and electrical stimulation. The understanding of the neurophysiology and the determination of the lowest stimulation strength that evokes responses requires the detection of even smallest responses, e.g., from single motor units, but available detection and quantization methods are rather simple and suffer from a large noise floor. The paper introduces a more sophisticated matched-filter detection method that increases the detection sensitivity and shows that activation occurs well below the conventional detection level. In consequence, also conventional threshold definitions, e.g., as 50 μV median response amplitude, turn out to be substantially higher than the point at which first detectable responses occur. The presented method uses a matched-filter approach for improved sensitivity and generates the filter through iterative learning from the presented data. In contrast to conventional peak-to-peak measures, the presented method has a higher signal-to-noise ratio (≥14 dB). For responses that are reliably detected by conventional detection, the new approach is fully compatible and provides the same results but extends the dynamic range below the conventional noise floor. The underlying method is applicable to a wide range of well-timed biosignals and evoked potentials, such as in electroencephalography.
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    The incidence of unacceptable movement with motor evoked potentials during craniotomy for aneurysm clipping.
    (World Neurosurg, 2014-01) Hemmer, Laura B; Zeeni, Carine; Bebawy, John F; Bendok, Bernard R; Cotton, Mathew A; Shah, Neil B; Gupta, Dhanesh K; Koht, Antoun
    OBJECTIVE: To review the experience at a single institution with motor evoked potential (MEP) monitoring during intracranial aneurysm surgery to determine the incidence of unacceptable movement. METHODS: Neurophysiology event logs and anesthetic records from 220 craniotomies for aneurysm clipping were reviewed for unacceptable patient movement or reason for cessation of MEPs. Muscle relaxants were not given after intubation. Transcranial MEPs were recorded from bilateral abductor hallucis and abductor pollicis muscles. MEP stimulus intensity was increased up to 500 V until evoked potential responses were detectable. RESULTS: Out of 220 patients, 7 (3.2%) exhibited unacceptable movement with MEP stimulation-2 had nociception-induced movement and 5 had excessive field movement. In all but one case, MEP monitoring could be resumed, yielding a 99.5% monitoring rate. CONCLUSIONS: With the anesthetic and monitoring regimen, the authors were able to record MEPs of the upper and lower extremities in all patients and found only 3.2% demonstrated unacceptable movement. With a suitable anesthetic technique, MEP monitoring in the upper and lower extremities appears to be feasible in most patients and should not be withheld because of concern for movement during neurovascular surgery.
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    Utility of intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring in detecting motor and sensory nerve injuries in pediatric high-grade spondylolisthesis.
    (The spine journal : official journal of the North American Spine Society, 2023-12) Iorio, Carlo; Koucheki, Robert; Strantzas, Samuel; Vandenberk, Michael; Lewis, Stephen J; Zeller, Reinhard; Camp, Mark; Rocos, Brett; Lebel, David E

    Background context

    Intraoperative neuromonitoring (IONM) during surgical correction of spinal deformity has been shown to reduce iatrogenic injury in pediatric and adult populations. Although motor-evoked potentials (MEP), somatosensory-evoked potentials (SSEP), and electromyography (EMG) have been shown to be highly sensitive and specific in detecting spinal cord and nerve root injuries, their utility in detecting motor and sensory nerve root injury in pediatric high-grade spondylolisthesis (HGS) remains unknown.

    Purpose

    We aim to assess the diagnostic accuracy and therapeutic impact of unimodal and multimodal IONM in the surgical management of HGS.

    Study design/setting

    Retrospective cohort study.

    Patient sample

    Pediatric patients undergoing posterior spinal fusion (PSF) for treatment of HGS.

    Outcome measures

    Data on patient demographics, spinopelvic and spondylolisthesis parameters, and the presence of pre-and postoperative neurological deficits were collected.

    Methods

    Intraoperative MEP, SSEP, and EMG alerts were recorded. Alert criteria were defined as a change in amplitude of more than 50% for MEP and/or SSEP, with or without change in latency, and more than 10 seconds of sustained EMG activity. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and accuracy were calculated for each modality and the combination of MEP and SSEP. The 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using the exact (Clopper-Pearson) method.

    Results

    Fifty-four pediatric patients with HGS undergoing PSF between 2003 and 2021 in a single tertiary center were included. Seventy-two percent (39/54) of patients were female; the average age of patients was 13.7±2.3 years. The sensitivity of MEP in detecting new postoperative neurologic deficit was 92.3% (95% CI [64.0-99.8]), SSEP 77.8% (95% CI [40.0-97.2]), EMG 69.2% (95% CI [38.6-90.9]), and combination MEP and SSEP 100% (95% CI [73.5-100]). The specificity of MEP was 80.0% (95% CI [64.4-91.0]), SSEP 95.1% (95% CI [83.5-99.4]), EMG 65.9% (95% CI [49.4-79.9]), and combination MEP and SSEP 82.9% (95% CI [67.9-92.9]). The accuracy of SSEP was 92.0% (95% CI [80.8%-97.8%]), and the combination of MEP and SSEP was 86.8% (95% CI [74.7%-94.5%]). Twelve (22.2%) patients had a new motor or sensory deficit diagnosed immediately postoperatively. Nine patients made a full recovery, and 3 had some neurologic deficit on final follow-up.

    Conclusion

    Unimodal IONM using SSEP and MEP alone were accurate in diagnosing sensory and motor nerve root injuries, respectively. The diagnostic accuracy in predicting motor and sensory nerve injuries in pediatric HGS improved further with the use of multimodal IONM (combining MEP and SEP). We recommend the utilization of multimodal IONM in all HGS PSF surgeries.
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    Utility of neuromonitoring during lumbar pedicle subtraction osteotomy for adult spinal deformity.
    (Journal of neurosurgery. Spine, 2019-05) Lau, Darryl; Dalle Ore, Cecilia L; Reid, Patrick; Safaee, Michael M; Deviren, Vedat; Smith, Justin S; Shaffrey, Christopher I; Ames, Christopher P

    Objective

    The benefits and utility of routine neuromonitoring with motor and somatosensory evoked potentials during lumbar spine surgery remain unclear. This study assesses measures of performance and utility of transcranial motor evoked potentials (MEPs) during lumbar pedicle subtraction osteotomy (PSO).

    Methods

    This is a retrospective study of a single-surgeon cohort of consecutive adult spinal deformity (ASD) patients who underwent lumbar PSO from 2006 to 2016. A blinded neurophysiologist reviewed individual cases for MEP changes. Multivariate analysis was performed to determine whether changes correlated with neurological deficits. Measures of performance were calculated.

    Results

    A total of 242 lumbar PSO cases were included. MEP changes occurred in 38 (15.7%) cases; the changes were transient in 21 cases (55.3%) and permanent in 17 (44.7%). Of the patients with permanent changes, 9 (52.9%) had no recovery and 8 (47.1%) had partial recovery of MEP signals. Changes occurred at a mean time of 8.8 minutes following PSO closure (range: during closure to 55 minutes after closure). The mean percentage of MEP signal loss was 72.9%. The overall complication rate was 25.2%, and the incidence of new neurological deficits was 4.1%. On multivariate analysis, MEP signal loss of at least 50% was not associated with complication (p = 0.495) or able to predict postoperative neurological deficits (p = 0.429). Of the 38 cases in which MEP changes were observed, the observation represented a true-positive finding in only 3 cases. Postoperative neurological deficits without MEP changes occurred in 7 cases. Calculated measures of performance were as follows: sensitivity 30.0%, specificity 84.9%, positive predictive value 7.9%, and negative predictive value 96.6%. Regarding the specific characteristics of the MEP changes, only a signal loss of 80% or greater was significantly associated with a higher rate of neurological deficit (23.0% vs 0.0% for loss of less than 80%, p = 0.021); changes of less than 80% were not associated with postoperative deficits.

    Conclusions

    Neuromonitoring has a low positive predictive value and low sensitivity for detecting new neurological deficits. Even when neuromonitoring is unchanged, patients can still have new neurological deficits. The utility of transcranial MEP monitoring for lumbar PSO remains unclear but there may be advantages to its use.