Who Really Makes the Decision to Use or Not to Use IONM?
By Admin | May 16, 2016
When it comes to spine surgery and neuromonitoring, there is no medical standard of care to determine if IONM should or should not be used.
Of course, “medical standard of care” is a legal term usually found in malpractice lawsuits. Basically, It measures the level of care against what other similarly trained healthcare providers would do in a similar situation. And when it comes to an increasing number of spine surgeries, IONM is part of the training because the companies who create the equipment are doing the training. Therefore, training by equipment producers results in establishing the medical standard of care.
This is where the subject gets controversial, because many seasoned surgeons believe they should be the ones determining what is necessary in the operating room, not equipment manufacturers.
For more information, read “Surgeons Should Determine Standard of Care for Intraoperative Neuromonitoring” by John C. Liu, MD, on Helio Spine Surgery Today.
