Transcranial electric stimulation motor evoked potentials for cervical spine intraoperative monitoring complications: systematic review and illustrative case of cardiac arrest.

PURPOSE: We show a systematic review of known complications during intraoperative neuromonitoring (IONM) using transcranial electric stimulation motor evoked potentials (TES-MEP) on cervical spine surgery, which provides a summary of the main findings. A rare complication during this procedure, cardiac arrest by cardioinhibitory reflex, is also described. METHODS: Findings of 523 scientific papers published from 1995 onwards were reviewed in the following databases: CENTRAL, Cochrane Library, Embase, Google Scholar, Ovid, LILACS, PubMed, and Web of Science. This study evaluated only complications on cervical spine surgery undergoing TES-MEP IONM. RESULTS: The review of the literature yielded 13 studies on the complications of TES-MEP IONM, from which three were excluded. Five studies are case series; the rest are case reports. Overall, 169 complications on 167 patients were reported in a total of 38,915 patients, a global prevalence of 0.43%. The most common complication was tongue-bite in 129 cases, (76.3% of all complication events). Tongue-bite had a prevalence of 0.33% (CI 95%, 0.28-0.39%) in all patients on TES-MEP IONM. A relatively low prevalence of severe complications was found: cardiac-arrhythmia, bradycardia and seizure, the prevalence of this complications represents only one case in all the sample. Alongside, we report the occurrence of cardiac arrest attributable to TES-MEP IONM. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic review shows that TES-MEP is a safe procedure with a very low prevalence of complications. To our best knowledge, asystole is reported for the first time as a complication during TES-MEP IONM.

Abordaje de la vía aérea en el paciente neuroquirúrgico / Airway approach in the neurosurgical patient

Resumen: El abordaje de la vía aérea en el paciente neuroquirúrgico presenta grandes retos debido al escenario tan complejo al cual nos enfrentamos; debemos considerar las características propias del paciente, las comorbilidades presentes y la patología neurológica por la que va a ser intervenido. Conocer la patología neurológica y las implicaciones o repercusiones que ésta puede llegar a tener en el manejo de la vía aérea ayudarán a la toma de decisiones y conocer los retos y escenarios que se pudieran presentar durante el evento anestésico-quirúrgico.

Abstract: The approach to the airway in the neurosurgical patient presents great challenges due to the complex scenario we face; we must consider the patient's own characteristics, the co-morbidities present and the neurological pathology for which it is going to be intervened. Knowing the neurological pathology and the implications or repercussions that this may have over the management of the airway will help decision making and manage the challenges and scenarios that could arise during the anesthetic surgical event.