[Use of evoked potentials for the intraoperative differentiation of motor and sensory fascicles]

The animal experiments demonstrate the possibility of differentiating intraoperatively between motor and sensory fascicles of the peripheral nerve. This differentiation is based on somatosensory evoked potentials, which are summarized with an averager. Peripheral nerves in four patients have been reconstructed with this method. The first (median nerve lesion) has complete motor function of the thenar eminence seven months after operation.