Monitoring of sensory evoked potentials during neurosurgical operations: methods and applications

Monitoring of sensory evoked potentials (SEPs) may help minimize the risk of neurological injury during neurosurgical operations. The author describes the current state of the art, summarizing basic principles and reviewing current clinical applications. Experience with intraoperative monitoring of auditory, somatosensory, and visual evoked potentials is presented. The pitfalls and limitations of presently available methods are discussed, with some speculation regarding future developments. Given adequate quality control in the acquisition, processing, and interpretation of electrophysiological signals, monitoring of SEPs can be a valuable adjunct to the intraoperative care of selected neurosurgical patients.