Intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring in spinal cord surgery

Abstract

The recent breakthrough development of the intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (IONM) has greatly contributed to minimizing neural damage and making surgery safe. In particular, IONM can significantly improve the patient's prognosis in the case of spinal cord surgery with frequent post-operative neural damage. Somatosensory evoked potential and motor evoked potential are highly recommended for IONM in the spinal cord surgery, and spinal cord mapping plays an important role in intramedullary tumor surgery. In this review, we will discuss the modalities, methods, and values of IONM in spinal cord surgery, and consider the future direction of IONM development.