07/31/2025
"The Checklist Manifesto" was a smash hit. It uses surgery and flying planes as examples where mistakes can be avoided by using a checklist.
It's kind of boring. And really effective.
Why is this IONM checklist better than the standard checks before starting surgery or flying a plane?
Because this is a checklist for what to do when things go sideways.
That doesn't always happen -- 10% of the time is a pretty safe estimate. So, all those involved have less experience in this situation.
And if you travel to enough places, you'll find there's a possibility that someone in the room would benefit from having this available.
Maybe it's a newer surgical neurophysiologist. Or maybe it's the anesthesiologist that just doesn't work with neuromonitoring much.
Might be a good item for a hospital or surgery center to have on hand in their rooms, as well as for the surgical neurophysiologist to keep in a folder.
Vitale, M.G., Skaggs, D.L., Pace, G.I., Wright, M.L., Matsumoto, H., Anderson, R.C., Brockmeyer, D.L., Dormans, J.P., Emans, J.B., Erickson, M.A., Flynn, J.M., Glotzbecker, M.P., Ibrahim, K.N., Lewis, S.J., Luhmann, S.J., Mendiratta, A., Richards, B.S., Sanders, J.O., Shah, S.A., Smith, J.T., Song, K.M., Sponseller, P.D., Sucato, D.J., Roye, D.P., & Lenke, L.G. (2014). Best Practices in Intraoperative Neuromonitoring in Spine Deformity Surgery: Development of an Intraoperative Checklist to Optimize Response. Spine Deformity, 2, 333-339.
