Intra-operative awakening to monitor spinal cord function during scoliosis surgery. Description of the technique and report of four cases.
We used a modification of the wake-up test to monitor spinal cord function in 102 consecutive scoliotic patients undergoing Harrington instrumentation. Four patients were found to have a neural deficit when they were awakened during the operation. Three recovered immediately after partial release of the distracting force; one required immediate removal of the rod and was left with a slight neural deficit. Using our method, we have encountered no problem in performing the wake-up test, although attention is drawn to the difficulty in repeating the test if the patient is re-anaesthetised with diazepam. There were no false negative results in this series.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000768:Anesthesia, General / Q000379:methods*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005528:Foot / Q000502:physiology; D006225:Hand / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007430:Intraoperative Care; D008297:Male; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000379:methods; D009068:Movement; D009609:Nitrous Oxide / Q000008:administration & dosage; D012600:Scoliosis / Q000601:surgery*; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000175:diagnosis*; D013123:Spinal Fusion / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods
D009609:Nitrous Oxide