Sistema para la monitorización neurofisiológica intraoperatoria

Abstract

The objective of Neurophysiological Intraoperative Monitoring (NIOM) is the real-time supervision of the functional status of the Nervous System (NS) during a surgical procedure. It is based on the principle that any permanent neurological damage is always preceded by significant changes in the electrical activity of the neural pathways involved; changes that can therefore be detected to warn the surgeon and guide surgical step in order to avoid post-surgical lesions. NIOM comprises a range of different electrophysiological techniques, including: somatosensory, visual and auditory Evoked Potentials; Electroencephalography; Electromyography; and Transcranial Motor Evoked Potentials. This work presents a system for the implementation of this clinical procedure, composed of a modified version of Neuronica 5 equipment adapted for this purpose and a set of software applications developed using state-of-the-art programming techniques that comply with all the requirements of NIOM and can be run in a personal computer. The system has been tested on the field by several hospitals in the country, proving its value as an effective tool for the early detection of signs preceding possible damage to NS structures during surgery. © 2013 Springer.