Intraoperative improvements of somatosensory evoked potentials: correlation to clinical outcome in surgery for cervical spondylitic myelopathy.

STUDY
DESIGN: Retrospective review of all patients who underwent surgical treatment of cervical spondylitic myelopathy and were monitored by somatosensory evoked potentials.
OBJECTIVES: To identify the patients who had recognizable improvements in somatosensory evoked potential signals intraoperatively and to correlate the changes in somatosensory evoked potential signals to the post-operative clinical status of the patients and compare this group of patients with those that had stable intraoperative somatosensory evoked potential recordings. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Somatosensory evoked potentials are commonly used in the operating room to monitor potential injury to the spinal cord or alterations in spinal cord function. It may be possible to use intraoperative somatosensory evoked potentials to detect improvement in spinal cord function during the decompression of neural structures, as evidenced by an increase in amplitude or a decrease in the latency of the wave form.
METHODS: Thirty-two patients with moderate to severe cervical spondylitic myelopathy requiring multi-level anterior decompression and fusion were monitored intraoperatively with somatosensory evoked potentials. The median and posterior tibial nerves were stimulated at the wrist and ankle, respectively. Somatosensory evoked potential recordings were obtained from cervical and scalp electrodes by the Nicolet Pathfinder electrodiagnostic system, preoperatively, intraoperatively, and postoperatively.
RESULTS: Eleven of thirty-two patients demonstrated intraoperative improvement of somatosensory evoked potential signals after decompression. All patients had rapid recovery of motor strength, bladder control, and ambulatory capacity within days of surgery. The remaining twenty-one patients had stable somatosensory evoked potential recordings. Five had rapid resolution of their symptoms, 15 improved over the course of 6 to 8 weeks, and 1 did not improve. The motor recovery of this group at 8 weeks was equal to the group of patients that showed intraoperative improvements of evoked potential signals.
CONCLUSIONS: 1) Multilevel anterior cervical decompression and fusion produced a significant improvement in the motor function of patients with cervical spondylitic myelopathy. 2) Patients with intraoperative increase in amplitude or shortening of latency had a more rapid clinical improvement than patients with stable recordings. 3) Long-term reassessment did not show any difference between patients with intraoperative somatosensory evoked potential improvement and those with stable somatosensory evoked potential recordings. Therefore, somatosensory evoked potential improvements cannot be used to determine prognosis at the present time. 4) A greater number of patients should be studied using more objective methods for quantifying gait patterns and motor function.