Neurophysiological monitoring of the lower limbs

Subspecialty: Spinal dysraphism

Type: Clinical Summary

This review reports intraoperative electrophysiological mapping of segmental motor innervation of human lower‑extremity skeletal muscles, using supramaximal stimulation of spinal nerve roots and compound motor action potential (CMAP) recordings. It addresses the biological basis of myotomal overlap and multi‑segmental innervation, provides a muscle‑by‑muscle map of dominant contributing roots, and discusses implications for diagnostic localisation, neurophysiological monitoring and surgical decompression. Overview The studies evaluated adult patients (mean age 39.1 years) , performing systemat…

Source Papers

Accurate segmental motor innervation of human lower-extremity skeletal muscles (2015)
A broad and variable lumbosacral myotome map uncovered by foraminal nerve root stimulation. (2022)
Intraoperative monitoring of segmental spinal nerve root function with free-run and electrically-triggered electromyography and spinal cord function with reflexes and F-responses. A position statement by the American Society of Neurophysiological Monitoring (2005)