Spinal Deformity Intraoperative Monitoring.

A multicenter, international prospectively collected patient cohort undergoing high-risk spinal cord level surgery or spinal osteotomy procedures will be enrolled to establish the incidence of intraoperative alerts in high-risk spinal cord cases, and explore factors associated with mitigating injury. Baseline, intraoperative, and postoperative characteristics, including demographics, radiological features, lower extremity motor score (LEMS), procedure, anesthetic agents used, and baseline blood pressure will be recorded for either adult patients or pediatric patients. If a major change occurs in the intraoperative neuromonitoring, defined as a loss of amplitude greater than 50% in the MEP or SSEP from baseline or sustained EMG activity, a separate form (Appendix 3, Intraoperative Alert Form) will be completed in real-time by the neuromonitoring technician outlining the timing of the alert, blood pressure at the time, surgical events at the time of the change, intraoperative maneuvers performed to address the change, and resultant outcome of these maneuvers to address the neuromonitoring change. For each alert occurring during the procedure, a separate form will be completed. Once the patient is awake from anesthesia, the treating surgeon will perform a neurological examination to identify details about the deficit including sidedness, LEMS, sensory deficit, injury to the nerve root, incomplete spinal cord (ie anterior cord, posterior cord, central cord, Brown-Sequard), complete spinal cord injury, conus or cauda equina deficit. The examination is repeated on the day of discharge from hospital, or at day 30, whichever comes first and documented in the corresponding form. The objective of this study is to identify the incidence of intraoperative alerts in high-risk spinal cord cases, correlate significant neuromonitoring changes to intraoperative events, and identify maneuvers that will restore the neuromonitoring changes to baseline. The information provided by this study will educate spinal surgeons to recognize a spinal cord at risk and to perform intraoperative maneuvers that will decrease the incidence of neurological injuries.