Substantial Improvement in Intraoperative Motor Evoked Response During Surgery on the Cervical Spine: A Case Report

Some surgeons believe that intraoperative monitoring during cervical spine surgeries might be an expensive superfluous procedure. In this paper, we would like to report an unexpected improvement in motor-evoked responses amplitude, immediately after the cervical spinal cord was decompressed. The patient showed remarkable improvement directly post-operatively and multiple conclusions were drawn in this case. Surgical spinal cord decompression can result in the reversal of neurological deficits and should be implemented whenever possible; in addition, surgical decompression successfully relieves the pressure on the cord and triggers the opening of the channels, which will lead to re-conduction through the nodes of Ranvier. Most importantly, spine surgeons should perform spinal decompression surgeries instantaneously to achieve better results and avoid any irreversible injury to the spine. We concluded that spine surgeons should embrace the concept of monitoring techniques and adequately interpret intra-op records for better decision-making during surgery in order to yield safe and favorable surgical outcomes.

Keywords:Spinal cord; Iintraoperative monitoring; Motor-evoked potentials