A Randomized Controlled Crossover Study Comparing Sugammadex and Placebo

Intraoperative monitoring of the motor evoked potentials has been shown to be both a sensitive and specific indicator for detecting intraoperative neurological injuries during spine surgery.(Fehlings, Brodke et al. 2010) It is utilized whenever there is risk for injury of nerve roots or the spinal cord during the procedure. Anesthetic agents, especially the inhaled volatile anesthetics and muscle relaxants, are con-founders for motor evoked potential monitoring as they have deleterious effects on the amplitude of motor evoked potentials.(Sekimoto, Nishikawa et al. 2006) Hence, total intravenous anesthesia with no intraoperative muscle relaxants, are the standard anesthetic technique for these surgeries. Muscle relaxants are usually required during the induction of anesthesia and endotracheal intubation of larynx. Current practice is to wait for the resolution of residual neuromuscular blockade before the motor evoked potential recordings (MEP) are initiated and this makes it difficult to assess if there was any neurological injury associated with positioning of the patient. A previous case series has shown that reversal of muscle relaxant can improve the amplitude of MEPs.(Batistaki, Papadopoulos et al. 2012) The aim of this study is to perform a randomized controlled trial to study the changes in motor evoked potential amplitudes comparing sugammadex and placebo.