Spinal surgery can be dangerous and unpredictable. Spinal surgery involves cutting areas near the spinal cord and the nerves. Intraoperative neuromonitoring allows the surgeon to know, in real time, if nerve tissue is being injured or may be injured.
In many spinal surgeries, spinal surgeons are placing hardware into the body, such as screws, rods, and plates. If the hardware is incorrectly placed, the spinal cord and nerve roots could be damaged. In years past, surgeons relied on imaging tools such as X-rays and CT scans to check to see if the hardware was correctly placed during surgery. However, those tools are not always completely accurate in showing damage to nerve tissue or improperly placed hardware.
Intraoperative neuromonitoring is more effective than X-rays or CT scans in sensing neurological damage during surgery. In addition, intraoperative neuromonitoring is quick, easy, and inexpensive. It also provides feedback to the surgeon in real time, and can help reduce damage to nerve tissue during surgery.
However, intraoperative neuromonitoring is a medical procedure, and with any medical procedure there is the risk of something going wrong. In the case of neuromonitoring, the risk is generally not that there will be serious complications from the monitoring, but instead that the monitoring will be done incorrectly, and that there will be complications from the surgical procedure.
If you have been harmed during surgery that was being monitored using intraoperative neuromonitoring, call me, Conal Doyle, intraoperative neuromonitoring attorney at 310-385-0567. My team can help. Call today to learn more or to schedule a free consultation on your case.