Intraoperative monitoring provides a best practice standard of care for surgeons and patients.
Seldom has a field in medicine grown as rapidly as intraoperative neurophysiologic monitoring (IOM). IOM provides a real-time assessment of the status of the nervous system during surgery which allows the surgeon to modify the surgical plan in response to changes that indicate impending injury. Twenty-five years ago, few people had even heard of IOM. About 20 years ago, the initial seminal papers appeared, documenting the utility of somatosensory- and brainstem auditory- evoked potential monitoring in reducing the morbidity of scoliosis and brainstem surgery. These two modalities monitor the integrity of the body’s sensory and hearing systems, respectively. The last decade has seen remarkable advances in IOM. Not only have new modalities, such as motor evoked potentials (a test that monitors the status of the body’s motor function), become available, but the equipment used for monitoring has also improved considerably.
Beaumont is fortunate to have IOM technologists on staff that have worked in the field since its early conception and continue to apply their skill and knowledge daily. In fact, the level of experience hosted by Beaumont’s IOM group is nearly unprecedented and is not found in most hospitals. Beaumont IOM also enjoys a wide referral pattern of diverse cases, allowing each member to exercise and master all manner of IOM testing modalities.
Here at Beaumont we run a state-of-the-art-lab, staffed by technologists who are excited about the future of IOM and its ongoing development. The group’s diverse scientific and academic background also contributes to its constant growth and peer-to-peer education. Our clinician experience ranges from molecular biology to biomedical engineering, from chemistry to extensive training in evoked potential technology.
Another feature of this group is its involvement in newly-developed surgical procedures pioneered at Beaumont as well as partnering with industry to help further the use of IOM on an international level.