Spinal cord monitoring with a new device for automated signal analysis

Assessment of the functional integrity of motor and sensory pathways using intraoperative evoked potential monitoring has been recognized as a means of minimizing the risk of damage to neural pathways during surgical and neuroradiological procedures. In the United States an increasing number of neurophysiologists and neurologists, but also neurosurgeons and ENT physicians offer their services for neurophysiological monitoring to hospitals, spine units, or surgeons in private practice. Most individuals engaged in monitoring are still looking for the ‘unique, universal, and easy-to-handle’ evoked potential (EP) and electromyography (EMG) machine designed for intraoperative monitoring. For this reason several centres throughout the world have developed their own monitoring machinery often based on commercial EMG/EP machines by writing special software programs.