Short Report: Pedicle Screw Stimulation Values with and without Insulated Dilators in Percutaneous Screw Placement.

Current shunting is a potential cause of false negative threshold values whenever triggered EMG is utilized. We present a case where we stimulated percutaneously placed pedicle screws both with and without an insulated dilator to show the potential difference in threshold values. Our findings suggest that the risk of current shunting associated false negatives when stimulating pedicle screws placed via minimally invasive percutaneous approaches may be higher unless insulated dilators are utilized.