General Surgery

Neuromonitoring enables surgeons to monitor the function of the nerve paths that may be at risk during surgery. Poorly visible nerves too, can be identified with neuromonitoring, monitored and protected during the intervention. One of the most common application field is the monitoring of the vocal cord nerves during thyroid surgery.

Surgical manipulations at motor nerves lead to mechanical nerve irritations which result (through action potentials) in contractions of the innerved muscles. These contractions can be measured with needle or surface electrodes (EMG) and represented acoustically over a loudspeaker or optically on a display. The surgeon "hears" or sees any muscle activity caused by surgical manipulations.

The nerve can be stimulated simultaneously with a special stimulation probe leading to muscle contractions if the nerve is still intact.