Neurophysiologic Monitoring

Neurophysiologic monitoring is a diverse group of instruments that are used to monitor the central and peripheral nervous system during surgical procedures. Some are used to monitor anesthetic depth, whereas others are used by neurologists to monitor the integrity of the nervous system during surgical procedure. The goal of neurophysiologic monitoring is to have reliable, reproducible, and predictive monitors that can identify impending compromise to the neurologic system (or anesthetic) with minimal false predictive value and high positive predictive value. This allows for the identification of neurologic tissues by location and type that are at risk of compromise by vascular and/or mechanical injury. This review contains 3 figures, 8 tables, and  34 references. Key Words: auditory evoked potentials, bispectral index monitor, electrocorticography, electroencephalography, electromyographic monitoring, M-ENTROPY, motor evoked potentials, narcotrend index, sensory evoked potentials, spectral analysis