Intra-operative monitoring of the facial nerve with an air inflated balloon. Technical note.
A simple, reliable and cheap device for intra-operative monitoring of the facial nerve during surgery for cerebellopontine angle tumours is presented. It consists of a single use tracheostomy tube with a low pressure air inflatable cuff placed in the mouth of the patient on the side of the tumour, connected by a pressure transducer to a monitoring unit. It records any pressure changes in the patient's mouth induced by muscular contractions as a result of excitation of the inferior parts of the facial nerve.
Mourier
K L
KL
Service de Neurochirurgie, Hôpital Lariboisiere, Paris, France.
Raggueneau
J L
JL
George
B
B
Boissonnet
H
H
Hodes
J E
JE
Cophignon
J
J
D004868:Equipment Failure; D005154:Facial Nerve / Q000503:physiopathology*; D020220:Facial Nerve Injuries; D006801:Humans; D007431:Intraoperative Complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016343:Monitoring, Intraoperative / Q000295:instrumentation*; D009119:Muscle Contraction / Q000502:physiology*; D009464:Neuroma, Acoustic / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D014139:Tracheostomy / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014160:Transducers, Pressure