Fundamentals of evoked potentials and common clinical applications today.

Visual, auditory and somatosensory evoked potentials are commonly used in neurology today to confirm and localize sensory abnormalities, to identify silent lesions and to monitor changes. Methods have become standardized. Normal limits are now well described. Published reports have described well how these evoked potentials are different in various types of neurologic disorder. Intensive care unit applications and surgical monitoring have also developed appropriate medical uses of these tests. Evoked potentials have become useful as they are relatively objective, reproducible, very sensitive to impairment and relatively easy to use in many clinical settings.