Intraoperative monitoring of the motor function: experimental and clinical study

Manipulation of the lesions adjacent to the primary motor area or the motor pathway is troublesome for neurosurgeons because they lack an effective method to determine the primary motor area or to monitor motor function in the operative room. It will be of great value to establish a monitoring method of the corticospinal tract under general anaesthesia. We recorded the motor evoked potential (MEP) from direct motor cortex stimulation in cats and showed that it derives almost purely from the corticospinal tract. Then we used this technique during the operation of the resection of tumours near the primary motor area or the motor pathway. 1. Experimental study: Twenty adult cats were used in this study. Recording electrodes were flexible bipolar catheter electrodes inserted into the spinal epidural space. Stimulating electrodes were silver ball electrode on the cortex (anode) and needle electrode in the temporal muscle (cathode). Stimulation of 4-24 V, 5-10 Hz and 0.2 msec in duration were done and evoked potentials signals were averaged 60 to 512 times. MEP with multiple peaks was obtained that had a 112 msec conduction velocity in the spinal cord. We found the same signals from the stimulation of ipsilateral cerebral peduncle. Radiofrequency lesioning of ipsilateral cerebral peduncle produced a loss of MEP. These results show that MEP derives from the corticospinal tract. Significant wave form change, with components of short latency, was noted by the excessively intense stimuli. We supposed that superimposition of the signals from the extrapyramidal pathways, excited in the brain stem, results in this change.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)