Three different approaches to spinal cord monitoring for the prediction of spinal cord ischemia during thoracic aortic aneurysm surgery.

We report the case of a 66-year-old man who had a descending thoracic aneurysm, diagnosed as aortitis syndrome. He subsequently underwent an aneurysmectomy under simultaneous sensory and motor spinal cord monitoring. Spinal cord ischemia was diagnosed during prosthetic replacement of the aneurysm by changes in evoked spinal cord potentials and motor evoked potentials from the lumbar spinal cord enlargement and 2 pairs of intercostal arteries were reconstructed at the level of T9 and 10. After surgery, the patient developed paraparesis below T10, but the resulting neurological deficits were overcome with postoperative rehabilitation. Simultaneous monitoring of evoked spinal cord potentials and motor evoked potentials were useful in evaluating spinal cord ischemia during aortic aneurysm surgery and in determing whether intercostal arteries should be reconstructed.