Automated spinal cord monitoring system with multimodal evoked potentials

Abstract

Spinal Cord Evoked Potentials (SCEPs) induced by spinal cord stimulation are widely used in Japan to monitor spinal cord integrity^1,2. When abnormal mechanical force is applied to the spinal cord, SCEP exhibits a decrease in amplitude and a delay of the peak latency. Evoked potentials to monitor spinal cord function may vary according to disease types and operative techniques. With manual monitoring, a specialist has to repeat meticulous operation of electrodiagnostic equipment including changes of electrodes for multimodal monitoring and analysis of recorded data many times to evaluate the changes of evoked potentials during surgery. The time required for one manual monitoring takes at least several minutes. Thus, for intraoperative monitoring to be used widely and easily, an automated system with multimodal SCEPs was developed.