The Essence of Neuromonitoring: 23 Year Retrospective Study of 3436 Spinal Deformity Surgeries, Staggering 99.6% Accuracy/Detection of Permanent damage!

 Emerson RG's article published in the latest issue of Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology must be an eye opener for Naysayer neurologists and to those skeptic spine specialists out there who is impetuously discredit the predictability values and reliability of intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring. My own personal IONM experience provided to more than 1500 surgical procedures reveal even more than 99.6% accuracy of detection, wherein about 4-5 spine patients lives been saved (four lumbar and cervical fusion spine cases, and one scoliosis procedure) because of the timely warning from the IONM results during the surgical procedures, the timely warning enabled surgeon to take immediate intervention measures to reverse the risk of permanent damage thereby saved the patient from paralysis.

               The number of years accounted in this study, and the number of patients who underwent surgical procedures used for this analysis of Dr.Emerson's study is compelling and producing an authoritative findings. It is a must have clinical paper for all those who work in IONM field and a great reference source to be given to those naysayers.

J Clin Neurophysiol. 2012 Apr;29(2):149-50.

NIOM for spinal deformity surgery: there's more than one way to skin a cat.

Emerson RG. Abstract

STUDY DESIGN: This was a 23-year retrospective study of 3436 consecutive pediatric orthopedic spinal surgery patients between 1995 and 2008.

OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate the effectiveness of multimodality electrophysiologic monitoring in reducing the incidence of iatrogenic neurologic deficit in a pediatric spinal surgery population.

SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: The elective nature of many pediatric spinal surgery procedures continues to drive the need for minimizing risk to each individual patient. Electrophysiologic monitoring has been proposed as an effective means of decreasing permanent neurologic injury in this population.

METHODS: A total of 3436 consecutive monitored pediatric spinal procedures at a single institution between January 1985 and September 2008 were reviewed. Monitoring included somatosensory evoked potentials, descending neurogenic evoked potentials, transcranial electric motor evoked potentials, and various nerve root monitoring techniques. Patients were divided into 10 diagnostic categories. True-positive and false-negative monitoring outcomes were analyzed for each category. Neurologic deficits were classified as transient or permanent.

RESULTS: Seven of 10 diagnostic groups demonstrated true-positive findings resulting in surgical intervention. Seventy-four (2.2%) potential neurologic deficits were identified in 3436 pediatric surgical cases. Seven patients (0.2%) had false-negative monitoring outcomes. These patients awoke with neurologic deficits undetected by neuromonitoring. Intervention reduced permanent neurologic deficits to 6 (0.17%) patients. Monitoring data were able to detect permanent neurologic status in 99.6% of this population. The ratio of intraoperative events to total monitored cases was 1 event every 42 surgical cases and 1 permanent neurologic deficit every 573 cases.

CONCLUSIONS: The combined use of somatosensory evoked potentials, transcranial electric motor evoked potentials, descending neurogenic evoked potentials, and electromyography monitoring allowed accurate detection of permanent neurologic status in 99.6% of 3436 patients and reduced the total number of permanent neurologic injuries to 6.

Review of Neuromonitoring field 32 Years Ago?.

The utilization and importance of Neuromonitoring in hospital or intensive care set up was reviewed elaborately 32 years ago during 1985. Did anything change or how much change has took place in this field is quite interesting, while basic principles and intraoperative modalities discussed remain pretty much same today as 32 years ago, IONM field did make lots of progress ever since, better tests, analysis and interpretation of results got savvy and reliable upto 96-99% accuracy than it was during1985. Advancements in terms of application in various surgical procedure and combinatorial tests to yield better results, some newer techniques, and the entire hardware/machine technology certainly been upgraded to fit the Operating Room environment.

W.Hacks, the author of this review from the then FRG (West Germany, no longer the case after 90s unified Germany) made a remarkable attempt to provide insights 32 years ago. The review has been published in "Journal of Neurology (interestingly, the very first issue of this journal was published way back in the year 1891 that continued till today with the same name Journal of Neurology Volume 1 / 1891 - Volume 259 / 2012), quite an respectable journal in the field of neurology, it is still exist with the same name with a significant impact factor score of 3.85, ranked 33 among 185 clinical neurology journals [The top five Neurology journals are rated as follows:  (Neurology, Brain, Annals of Neurology, Journal of Neurotrauma, and Stroke, for an interesting review of these top journals, click here LINK).

Here is the link to the partial or one page review available at the bottom of this abstract, it is a pay per view article, only one page is viewable for non subscribers.

Abstract

Neuromonitoring—the continuous or intermittent observation of nervous system functions—has become a field of interdisciplinary interest. Basically there are two major applications of neuromonitoring: in the operating theatre and the neurological or neurosurgical intensive care unit. Evoked potential recording, intracranial pressure measurement, serial EEG recording, cerebral blood flow measurement and ultrasound techniques have all been used as monitoring methods. The application of these techniques for operations, intensive care and the evaluation of brain death will be described.

Key words  Neuromonitoring - Intraoperative monitoring - Evoked potential monitoring - Spinal cord monitoring - Brain death

http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-preview.axd?code=kpj1622557hv431x&size=largest

KFC Chicken Twister & Salmonella, watch out!

Brain damage after eating KFC's contaminated chicken twister?, Ouch..! are you still going to KFC?. I have to say that it has been years since I even had a glimpse of  the KFC building, let alone go inside to buy some meal, it is simply a disgusting food place, no wonder why the Australian court ordered KFC to pay $8Million to a 7 year old girl who suffered Salmonella infection after eating KFC food.
That is a one disgusting place to go for food?.

KFC ordered to pay $8m  to brain-damaged girl Paul Bibby, April 27, 2012 - 3:36PM  Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/kfc-ordered-to-pay-8m-to-braindamaged-girl-20120427-1xpkc.html#ixzz1tHQSfBEP

KFC ordered to pay $8 million to girl left brain damaged after eating meal. Monika Samaan ... her family has been awarded $8 million. Photo: Picture courtesy of NBN NewsRead more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/kfc-ordered-to-pay-8m-to-braindamaged-girl-20120427-1xpkc.html#ixzz1tHQrHQC8

Samaan, then seven, was in a coma for six months and was left with spastic quadriplegia with severe brain damage.

Bis- Is it Reliable?, what do the Anesthesiologists & Surgeons must know about Bis?.

New England Journal of Medicine is one of the Most respected and trustable medical journals out there, personally I place NEJM on top of some of even the well known American medical journals without a slightest doubts. 

And, this time it is the NEJM that has published some important results on BIS monitor usage by anesthesiologists inside the Operating Rooms.. The question many of the medical professionals must raise about this little tool is, is it a valuable technique to be used about patient's awareness or sleep/awake status during surgical procedures??. Now we know for sure from this study that the actual "validity" of BIS is seriously flawed and questionable?, further lead to a massive Re-call of FDA approved Bis monitors by the manufacturer Covidien, "Covidien PLC (COV) unveiled an expanded recall of its BIS Bilateral sensors" (Wall Street Journal)

Here is the RESULT of a study published in NEJM:

RESULTS
A total of 7 of 2861 patients (0.24%) in the BIS group, as compared with 2 of 2852 (0.07%) in the ETAC group, who were interviewed postoperatively had definite intraoperative awareness (a difference of 0.17 percentage points; 95% confidence interval [CI], −0.03 to 0.38; P=0.98). Thus, the superiority of the BIS protocol was not demonstrated. A total of 19 cases of definite or possible intraoperative awareness (0.66%) occurred in the BIS group, as compared with 8 (0.28%) in the ETAC group (a difference of 0.38 percentage points; 95% CI, 0.03 to 0.74; P=0.99), with the superiority of the BIS protocol again not demonstrated. There was no difference between the groups with respect to the amount of anesthesia administered or the rate of major postoperative adverse outcomes.

This topic of whether or not BIS monitor can help the anesthesiologist regarding the level of anesthesiology administered to patient is enough, or deep enough for a surgical incision to be performed by surgeon without perturbing patient memory was under debate among professionals for quite sometime, but this research group headed by Michael S Avidan, the principle investigator along with a big team at Washington University School of Medicine clarified to a some extent and proves the major consensus in the field that bis is unreliable?, the patients may be sleep but not to an extent intended or needed by anesthesiologist, so the patient might still be able to recall some of the ongoing conversations or sounds in the OR, huh?.

It is not just about remembering what is going on in the OR while sleeping on the surgical bed, but beyond that the Pain the patient will be enduring and remembering the pain due to surgical procedure is simply unacceptable and need to be addressed by medical and health care communities immediately. As far as feeling or remembering the pain of a surgical knife cutting though lasts for few seconds to minutes, it still unacceptable medical practice for the patient to go through or endure such pain, we are not in a war zone or some third world where there is no proper medical facility or no other alternative but take a knife and cut in a emergency scenario?.  However, what we are discussing here is about a totally equipped, highly advanced, ethically and medically justified planned surgical set up, and there is no execuse.

Here is the Link to the Full Study:

Study Evaluating Whether the Bispectral Index Prevents Patients at Higher Risk From Being Awake During Surgery and Anesthesia (BAG-RECALL)

This study has been completed.

First Received on May 16, 2008.   Last Updated on January 3, 2011   History of Changes

Sponsor:	Washington University School of Medicine
Collaborators:	Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research American Society of Anesthesiologists University of Chicago University of Manitoba University of Michigan
Information provided by:	Washington University School of Medicine
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:	NCT00682825

Electroretinogram by Donnell J Creel

Figure Reference: Med.Utah.edu (linked, pl click)

In general, intraopertive neurophysiological monitoring teams do not conduct ERG or EOG in the Operating room set up, it is rather cumbersome and difficult to get a reliable readings combined with the difficulty of placing the recording electrode and risks that are associated with the procedure.  However, Donnell in its Chapter on"The electroretinogram" presents the latest developments that record the status of retinal function using skin electrodes and he also sheds light on the recent advancement in ERG the multifocal retiongram. Whether you are going to conduct this test or not, if you are interested in all the evoked potentials and the basics, this is an excellent reading material. Enjoy.

 The Electroretinogram: Clinical Applications by Donnell J. Creel

Electrophysiological testing of patients with retinal disease began in clinical departments in the late nineteen forties. Under the influence of the Swedish pioneers, Holmgren (1865) and Granit (1933), the electroretinogram was being dissected into component parts and early intraretinal electrode studies were beginning to tell which cells or cell layers gave rise to the various components. A detailed discussion of the electroretinogram, or ERG as it is commonly abbreviated, is found in the accompanying chapter by Ido Perlman. A little after the introduction of the ERG as a test of the state of the patient’s retina, another diagnostic test called the electrooculogram (EOG) was introduced to the clinic (Arden et al., 1962). The EOG had advantages over the ERG in that electrodes did not touch the surface of the eye. The changes in the standing potential across the eyeball were recorded by skin electrodes during simple eye movements and after exposure to periods of light and dark. Over the years ERG recording techniques have become progressively more sophisticated in the clinical setting. With the advent of perimetry, optical coherence tomography (OCT) and pattern ERG techniques, more precise mapping of dysfunctional areas of the retina is now possible. The most recent advance in ERG technology is the multifocal electroretinogram (mfERG). The mfERG provides a detailed assessment of the health of the central retina.

The Year in Neurology, 2011 Drug approvals and New treatments for Neurological disorders?

Medscape Article: 

Andrew N. Wilner, MD writes about the recent developments in basic science and clinical medicine to treat some of the impending neurological diseases, including several FDA approval on new drugs, interesting article.

A Look Back: Introduction

2011 has been a very exciting year for neurologists and their patients. Advances in basic science and disciplined clinical trials have led to drug approvals for the prevention of stroke and treatment of epilepsy. In addition, at least 2 oral drugs for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, BG-12 and teriflunomide, boast positive results from phase 3 trials and are poised for approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
In 2010, the FDA approved dabigatran, a thrombin inhibitor, for anticoagulation in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation. In November 2011, the FDA approved rivaroxaban, a once-daily oral factor Xa inhibitor, for the same indication. Another factor Xa inhibitor, apixaban, recently demonstrated superior results to warfarin in preventing stroke or systemic embolism, with less bleeding and lower mortality, and may soon be approved as well.^{[1]
Full article at Medscape linked at the top.} 

NeuroPhysiology Fed Research Funding declined Significantly?

Research Crossroads published the following chart for Neurophysiology funding, pretty bleak is the research fundings in our field?.




Both Neurophysiology funding and number of grants for research has been steeply declined since 2006 and it is probably at the 1994-6 levels, the lowest of funding provided to Neurophysiology research during these periods since 1992

Funding History?

Charted historical Neurophysiology funding.

IONM background, literature, history and Updates...!

Check out the latest news or reports topic and my upcoming editorial of animal electricity....!!

You Tube Video & Anguish of a Lay man about NeuroMonitoring?

Oh I wish there was someone from Neuromonitoring field had noticed the following random ranting of a lay man with quite an Anguish tone filled with incredible painful experience of being Stalked by some Remote stuff?, that this man decided to call it remote neuromonitring?, since no one helped this guy, his confusion continues as this posting,. So far and no one clarified online or offline to this man, I had to stretch from already busy blog writing to even answer unrelated rants of this kind, finally I had to do it myself to bring attention of this issue both to this lay man and to the Neuromonitoring professionals.

Dear Mr, Guy?,

Let me respectfully assert you that you have no idea or knowledge about Neuromonitoring or Remote Neuromoitoring, I wish you had consulted someone who knows about this field before making this public video that talks unintelligibly about a Scientific and Clinical Surgery field known as Intraoperative Neurophysiological Monitoring or in general known as Neuromonitoring.

Do you Smell: This is the Special Issue of ACS Chemical Senses published at SFN!

For those interested in sensory modalities and the recent developments especially on olfactory system, this topic might of great interest. A special issue on chemical senses published at the Society for neuroscience site.

One of the most extensive research work of mine explores the ability of central nervous pathway "olfactory tract" regeneration following experimentally induced transection (simulation of certain type of traumatic damage), the results have already been published in many reputed journals, a fascinating finding indicating though CNS has limited abilities to regenerate, central tracts like olfactory pathway has enormous regenerative potentials even at the synaptic reorganization levels (Exp Neurol. 1997 Mar;144(1):174-82. Regeneration of the olfactory tract following neonatal lesion in rats. Munirathinam S et al). This special issue mostly covers the advancement in perception of chemical senses by using PET and fMRI imaging studies, a good read to update Olfactory Sense?.

Our knowledge regarding the neural processing of the three chemical senses has been considerably lagging behind that of our other senses. It is only during the last 25 years that significant advances have been made in our understanding of where in the human brain odors, tastants, and trigeminal stimuli are processed. Here, we provide an overview of the current knowledge of how the human brain processes chemical stimuli based on findings in neuroimaging studies using positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Additionally, we provide new insights from recent meta-analyses, on the basis of all published neuroimaging studies of the chemical senses, of where the chemical senses converge in the brain.
http://pubs.acs.org/toc/acncdm/2/1

Learning EMG control of a robotic hand: towards active prostheses

for those who are interested in "EMG's" and developments in the field of usage of EMGs...!

ABSTRACT

We introduce a method based on support vector machines which can detect opening and closing actions of the human thumb, index finger, and other fingers recorded via surface EMG only. The method is shown to be robust across sessions and can be used independently of the position of the arm. With these stability criteria, the method is ideally suited for the control of active prosthesis with a high number of active degrees of freedom. The method is successfully demonstrated on a robotic four-finger hand, and can be used to grasp objects

New Edition Of Aage's Book is Ready in Dec 2010.

Oh, I can't wait to get a copy of this new edition of Aage's Intraoperative Neurophysiological Monitoring, just noticed today on Amazon that the book was released couple of weeks ago, it is available at Amazon ..........

From the Back Cover

The third edition of this classic text again provides practical, comprehensive coverage of the anatomical and physiological basis for intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring. Written by a leading authority in the field, Dr. Aage Moller has updated this important title to again offer all the leading-edge knowledge needed to perform electrophysiological recordings in the operating room, to interpret the results, and to present the results to the surgeon. The field known as "intraoperative monitoring" has expanded rapidly to cover other uses of neurophysiology and electrophysiologic recordings during surgical operations that affect the brain, spinal cord, and other parts of the nervous system. These new areas are covered in this new edition. To better represent the content of the book and the field as it now stands, many of the chapters have been revised and new material has been added. While the general organization of the book is maintained, chapters such as monitoring of motor systems have been revised and extended with new material, including more detailed description of the anatomy and physiology of motor systems and new information about intraoperative monitoring.

---

http://www.amazon.com/Intraoperative-Neurophysiological-Monitoring-Aage-M%C3%B8ller/dp/1441974350/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

Product Details Hardcover: 656 pages Publisher: Springer; 3rd Edition.  edition (December 10, 2010) Language: English ISBN-10: 1441974350 ISBN-13: 978-1441974358

168.4 Billion per Year to treat Obesity?. About 16.5% of America's Medical Spending?.

Obesity is eating up the total medical and health care spending of US, a whopping 16.5% (168.4 Billion) just to treat Obesity alone?.   Ref: Cardiovascularbusiness.com 

Using instrumental variables (IV) to estimate the impact of obesity on medical costs, researchers found that the causal effect of obesity on medical expenditures is four times higher than when non-IV models are used, indicating that previous literature has underestimated the impact of obesity on medical costs, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper published this month. The report estimates the annual cost of treating obesity-related illnesses annually in the U.S. is $168.4 billion, or 16.5 percent of medical spending. Previous studies have underestimated this cost and reported that obesity is only responsible for 9.1 percent of medical spending.

Interesting Read!..

Cauda Equina and Conus Medullaris Syndromes

Author: Segun T Dawodu, MD, JD, MBA, FAAPMR, FAANEM, CIME, DipMI(RCSed),

Introduction

Background

The spinal cord tapers and ends at the level between the first and second lumbar vertebrae in an average adult. The most distal bulbous part of the spinal cord is called the conus medullaris, and its tapering end continues as the filum terminale. The upper border of the conus medullaris is often not well defined. Distal to this end of the spinal cord is a collection of nerve roots, which are horsetail-like in appearance and hence called the cauda equina (Latin for horse's tail). These nerve roots constitute the anatomic connection between the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS). They are arranged anatomically according to the spinal segments from which they originated and are within the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the subarachnoid space with the dural sac ending at the level of second sacral vertebra.