Neuromonitoring News!

Biotronics-a neuromonitoring company based in Ann-Arbor acquired another company :American Neuromonitoring of Farmington Hills. Here is the story......

Deal positions Biotronics for growth
"This is historically a very fragmented industry. ... Only in the last few years have (companies) begun to build to serving 20, 40 and, in our case, hundreds of clinicians in the field. Once you get yourself in a larger scale, you're able to provide a better price point to hospitals." - Gene Balzer, Biotronics chief executive officer.

By TINA REEDThe Ann Arbor News
As the practice of monitoring patients' nerve functions during spinal surgeries grows in popularity, an Ann Arbor-based company said it's aggressively trying to grow itself to make the practice more accessible to U.S. hospitals.

Biotronic NeuroNetwork recently acquired American Neuromonitoring of Farmington Hills in a move it hopes will position itself for future acquisitions and increase its monitoring expertise, said Gene Balzer, Biotronics chief executive officer.

Remifentenil Reduces Patient Movement during Neurosurgery?

Doctors Guide is a very informative website on various fields of medicine and related subjects, mainly aimed to serve the doctors and information seekers in the allied health field and general public. http://www.docguide.com. It is freely accessible, if you want to personalize, you have to register and it is free.

The following article is relevant and interesting to neurophysiologists who do intraoperative neuromonitoring, also for anesthesiologists and the neurosurgeons who are concerned about patient movement during surgical procedure. In the recent annual meeting of the "American Soceity of Anesthesiologists the following work on Remifentanil was presented. Arushi Sinha, PhD writes about a presentation on how remifentanil can reduce patient movement during neurosurgery.


New Approaches for Reducing Patient Movement During Neurosurgery:
Presented at ASA
By Arushi Sinha, PhDSAN FRANCISO, CA -- October 23, 2007 --
Remifentanil reduces the risk of movement in the absence of muscle relaxants among patients undergoing elective craniotomy, researchers reported here at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA).In the case of neuroanaesthesia surgeries, muscle relaxants may not be indicated, particularly if intraoperative monitoring of motor evoked potentials or electromyography are involved. Alternative agents, such as remifentanil and propofol, may be used in such settings according to recent research.Marco Maurtua, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, United States, and his colleagues designed a study to characterise the role of remifentanil in reducing movement associated with neurosurgical stimuli and to examine the incidence of bradycardia and hypotension in elective craniotomy patients.

[Presentation title: Remifentanil Prevents Movement During Neurosurgery in the Absence of Neuromuscular Blockade. Abstract A1481]