Utility of Intraoperative Spinal Sonography for Spinal Disease

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to clarify the usefullness of intraoperative spinal sonography (IOSS) for spinal diseases.
Our IOSS procedure is as follows; 1) After laminectomy or laminoplaty, water is properly applied over the dura surface, 2) The probe used for IOSS is the 7.5MHz Toshiba probe, 3) Scanning of acurate sagittal and axial images.
More information the spinal cord can be obtained using IOSS than MRI imaging in some cases. IOSS provides an excellent visualization of the spinal cord and anterior surface of the spinal canal. This method is therefore quite useful for monitoring the decompression of the spinal cord in cervical myelopathy and OPLL. We can also observe the position and extent of syrinx and evaluate the shunt, as well as observe the size of syrinx which changes with breathing in the case of syringomyelia. IOSS may play a significant role for solving the extending mechanism of syrinx.
TOSS has thus been concluded as being extremely useful for reconfirming the decompression of the spinal cord during real-time operations. This method also allows evaluation of dynamic spinal cord motion in various kinds of spinal diseases.