Brief Overview about Intraoperative Neurophysiological Monitoring

Abstract

       Intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (IONM) measures neural function and integrity during surgical procedures. IONM is often associated with reducing the risk of postoperative neurological deficits in operations where the nervous system is at risk of  being permanently injured. Reducing the risk of loss of function in portions of the nervous system is based on the observation that the function of neural structures usually changes in a measurable way before being permanently damaged . Reversing the surgical manipulation that caused the change within a certain time will result in a recovery to normal or near-normal function, whereas if no intervention had been taken, there would have been a risk that permanent postoperative neurological deficit would have resulted. Alerted to the loss of a neural signal, the surgeon has the opportunity to adjust the procedure to decrease the risk of long-lasting damage . There is a large range over which recovery can occur either totally or partially. To a certain degree of injury, there can be total recovery, but thereafter, the neural function might be affected for some time. After more severe injury, the recovery of normal function not only takes a longer time but the final recovery would only be partial, with the degree of recovery depending on the nature, degree, and duration of the insult.