Speaker: Dr. Krishn Sharma, Orthopedic Spine Surgeon, Scoliosis and Spinal Surgery (2:01)
Transcripts to follow:
Dr. Krishn Sharma, Orthopedic Spine Surgeon, Scoliosis and Spinal Surgery:
I use neuromonitoring for all my spinal cases, with only a few exceptions. Most of the things that I do are more complex (scoliosis, revision surgery, constructive surgery) and I find that it adds an extra level of safety for my patients. It gives me a little bit more comfort level when I’m in the operating room and I’m working around the spinal cord and the nerve roots. And it gives me a better comfort level when I leave the operating room knowing that things started off normal and were normal again at the end when we finished.
The most important things to me, in terms of neuromonitoring, are, 1) having a good technician in the operating room who can apply the leads appropriately, who can trouble shoot if necessary, who can communicate back and forth with the doctor at the other end of the computer if there is some sort of a problem. 2) I need availability of the doctor. Sometimes I’ll be doing cases that are so complex, I’ll request a physician to come to the operating room so that I know I’ve got the person that I need there to tell me if something is right or something is wrong.
I work at 4 or 5 different hospitals in the area and I really only work with one neuromonitoring team, that’s Neuro Alert. I’ve known the physicians that run NeuroAlert before I even started working with them. I find that they, technically, have the best support staff in the operating room. And they’re always available in the operating room if I need them, to speak with them directly. And I’ve been very happy with them, I don’t think I would change.