Our team has been working hard along side two world class surgical teams in London providing monitoring to their complex aortic programs. IONM is of great benefit whilst the surgeons perform open repair of ThoracoAbdominal Aortic Aneurysms (TAAAs) since the spinal cord is at risk of ischeamic injury.

Using multimodal monitoring of both sensory and motor pathways provides live information regarding spinal cord function throughout the procedure,  in turn giving the surgeons confidence that spinal cord perfusion has been restored and reducing permanent neurological injury to the patient.

Monitoring of cortical function using EEG is highly valuable during ascending aortic repair to evaluate the efficacy of cooling and to assess the return of cortical activity once circulation has been restored.

Monitoring techniques employed are;

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

Somatosensory Evoked Potentials (SSEPs)

Transcranial Motor Evoked Potentials (TceMEPs)