The validity of multimodal intraoperative monitoring (MIOM) in surgery of 109 spine and spinal cord tumors

Abstract

In a prospective study of 109 patients with tumor of the spine MIOM was performed during the surgical procedure between March 2000 and December 2005. To determine the sensitivity and specificity of MIOM techniques used to monitor spinal cord and nerve root function during surgical procedure of spinal tumors. MIOM become an integrated procedure during surgical approach to intramedullar and extramedullar spine tumors. The combination of monitoring ascending and descending pathways may provide more sensitive and specific results than SEP alone giving immediate feedback information regarding any neurological deficit during the operation. Intraoperative sensory spinal and cerebral evoked potential combined with EMG recordings and motor evoked potential of the spinal cord and muscles were evaluated and compared with postoperative clinical neurological changes. One hundred and nine consecutive patients with spinal tumors of different aetiologies were monitored by the means of MIOM during the entire surgical procedure. Eighty-two patients presented true negative findings while two patients monitored false negative, one false positive and 24 patients true positive findings where neurological deficits after the operation were present. All patients with neurological deficit recovered completely or to preexisting neurological situation. The sensitivity of MIOM applied during surgery of spinal tumors has been calculated of 92% and specificity 99%. Based upon the results of the study MIOM is an effective method of monitoring the spinal cord and nerve root function during surgical approach of spinal tumors and consequently can reduce or prevent the occurrence of postoperative neurological deficit.

Current opinions and recommendations on multimodal intraoperative monitoring during spine surgeries

“…The high sensitivity and specificity of MIOM during the different surgical procedures as presented in this supplement [10][11][12][28][29][30][31] document its advantages. It has been clearly shown that MEP monitoring improves outcome after surgery for intramedullary spinal tumors [27].…”

A new alarm point of transcranial electrical stimulation motor evoked potentials for intraoperative spinal cord monitoring: a prospective multicenter study from the Spinal Cord Monitoring Working Group of the Japanese Society for Spine Surgery and Related Research

“…1,2,17 In particular, transcranial electrical stimulation motor evoked potentials (TcMEPs) are widely used for intraoperative spinal cord monitoring. Monitoring of TcMEPs became the gold standard due to their increased sensitivity and the importance of motor function.…”

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“…LR between 1 and 2 and between 0.5-1 rarely alter pretest probability. 6 Despite traditional spinal IOM literature suggests that NIOM is effective in identifying patients at a high risk for sustaining new spinal cord injuries [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] as well as animal research has supported human experience, [16][17][18] there is a heterogeneity in IOM services and this should be reviewed to see what accounts for the difference in false-positive and false-negative cases in the literature.…”