OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate that the electrical stimulation technique allows the detection of medial malpositioning of thoracic pedicle screws. RESULTS: We analyzed 421 thoracic screws. Stimulation alerts occurred in 25 (5.93%) cases. All patients underwent postoperative radiographs showing 22 medialized screws (5.2%). Axial CT scans were performed on 17 patients (37%), and no screw was found in position 1 and 10 of them were in position 2 (8.5%). Medialized screws were considered those who had a positive response to stimulation of less than 6 mA. CONCLUSIONS: Electrical stimulation allowed a reduction of risk of medial positioning of thoracic screws, minimizing the use of intraoperative radiographs.
Pedicle screws; Spinal instrumentation; Intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring