Intraoperative Neurophysiological Monitoring for Endoscopic Transforaminal Lumbar Spine Surgery under General Anesthesia

Percutaneous transforaminal sequestrectomy (PTFES) under endoscopic guidance has proven successful for decompressing lumbar motor nerve roots at the level of the neuroforamen. Nevertheless, nerve root injury is the major complication of this method. For this reason, PTFES has thus far been performed under local anesthesia so that the patient may be questioned about signs of nerve root irritation. A viable alternative seems to be a set-up with the patient under general anesthesia but with the „guidance and control“ of intraoperative motor nerve root monitoring (IOM). Twenty-five patients with an intra- or extrafo…