[Evoked potentials in intracranial operations: current status and our experiences]

Intraoperative neuromonitoring, especially evoked potential monitoring, has gained interest in recent years for both the anesthesiologist evaluating cerebral function and the neurosurgeon wishing to avoid neuronal lesions during intracranial operations. Before evoked potential monitoring can be introduced as a routine method of intraoperative management, experience with this method particularly in intensive care units, is imperative. We recorded evoked potentials with the Compact Four (Nicolet) and Basis 8000 (Schwarzer Picker International) computer systems. Preoperative derivations should be done with the same apparatus used intraoperatively and parameters of peri- and intraoperative derivations should not be changed. The patient's head must be fixed in a Mayfield clamp in order to avoid artefacts during trepanation. The possible artefacts due to apparatus, patient, or anesthesia are summarized in the tables. The derivations of evoked potentials should be supervised by a person who is not involved in the anesthesia or the surgical procedure; this condition may change in the future with full automatization of the recording technique and alarms. Good communication between surgeon, anesthesiologist, and neurophysiological assistant is a prerequisite. The modality is chosen in accordance with the affected neuronal system: visual-evoked potential (VEP) monitoring in the management of processes affecting the visual pathway, brain stem auditory-(BAER) and somatosensory-evoked potential (SSEP) monitoring in lesions affecting these pathways, in particular space-occupying lesions of the posterior fossa. VEP monitoring may be useful, but we observed alterations of the responses without changes in the level of anesthesia or manipulation of the visual pathways. In space-occupying processes of the cerebellopontine angle, BAER could not be developed in nearly all cases because the large underlying tumor had caused the disappearance of waves II-V. In these cases SSEP monitoring could be carried out. Despite these difficulties, evoked potential monitoring seems useful. We believe, however, that it is not routinely used in operating rooms at present because alterations of the responses can be due to different causes; for the neurosurgeon, the problem as to which interdependent degrees of alteration in evoked potentials are related to neuronal disturbances remains unsolved.