Monitoring somatosensory evoked potentials in spinal cord ischemia-reperfusion injury

This study investigates the use of somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPs) to monitor spinal cord ischemia-reperfusion injury in rabbits. SSEPs are electrical responses of the nervous system to specific stimuli and can indicate the integrity of neural pathways. The researchers occluded the abdominal aorta in rabbits to induce spinal cord ischemia and then monitored changes in SSEP latency and amplitude during ischemia and after reperfusion. They found that SSEP latency was prolonged, and amplitude decreased during ischemia. After reperfusion, the amplitude and latency of SSEPs gradually recovered, but severe hindlimb motor dysfunction was observed. This suggests that SSEP latency reflects the degree of ischemic injury, while amplitude variations indicate late reperfusion injury.

• 1
  Somatosensory evoked potential latency was significantly prolonged during spinal cord ischemia, reflecting the degree of ischemic injury.
• 2
  Somatosensory evoked potential amplitude variations were indicators of late spinal cord reperfusion injury and correlated with hindlimb motor function.
• 3
  Restoration of somatosensory evoked potential latency does not necessarily indicate synchronous recovery of spinal cord function, particularly motor function.