A Protocol Entry Catalog for Intraoperative Neuromonitoring - Steps Towards an Ontology

Area of Science:

• Neurosurgery
• Neuroscience
• Medical Informatics

Background:

• Intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (IOM) is vital in neurosurgery to minimize postoperative deficits.
• Current IOM practices lack a standardized method for recording neural electrical activity and associated events.
• Consistent data recording is essential for analyzing clinical events and their impact on patient outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a standardized protocol for recording IOM data in neurosurgery.
• To facilitate data input and enable diverse analyses of neurophysiological, surgical, and anesthesia events.
• To establish a foundation for systematic research linking intraoperative events to postoperative neurological deficits.

Main Methods:

• Development of a protocol entry catalog with 200 standard expressions across four initial categories: IOM, surgical procedure, anesthesia, and others.
• Empirical assessment of the catalog by an IOM team to identify areas for improvement.
• Refinement of the catalog into a final version with 25 categorized subcategories for enhanced data organization.

Main Results:

• A comprehensive catalog of 200 standard expressions was created.
• Empirical feedback led to the refinement of the catalog into 25 distinct subcategories.
• The standardized catalog enhances the systematic recording of IOM-related events.

Conclusions:

• The developed catalog represents a significant step towards standardizing IOM data collection in neurosurgery.
• Standardization will support research into the relationship between intraoperative events and postoperative neurological deficits.
• This initiative has the potential to improve surgical procedures and patient outcomes through data-driven insights.