Effects of anode position on pedicle screw testing during lumbosacral spinal fusion surgery

Pedicle screws are commonly placed with lumbar/lumbosacral fusions. Triggered electromyography (tEMG), which employs the application of electrical current between the screw and a complementary anode to determine thresholds of conduction, may be utilized to confirm the safe placement of such implants. While previous research has established clinical thresholds associated with safe screw placement, there is variability in clinical practice of anode placement which could lead to unreliable measurements. To determine the variance in pedicle screw stimulation thresholds when using four unique anode locations (ipsilateral/contralateral and paraspinal/gluteal relative to tested pedicle screws). Prospective cohort study. Tertiary medical center. Twenty patients undergoing lumbar/lumbosacral fusion with pedicle screws using tEMG tEMG stimulation return values are used to assess varied anode locations and reproducibility based on anode placement. Measurements were assessed across node placement in ipsilateral/contralateral and paraspinal/gluteal locations relative to the screw being assessed. R 2 coefficients of correlation were determined, and variances were compared with F-tests. A total of 94 lumbosacral pedicle screws from 20 patients were assessed. Repeatability was verified using two stimulations at each location for a subset of the screws with an R 2 of 0.96. Comparisons between the four anode locations demonstrated R 2 values ranging from 0.76 to 0.87. F-tests comparing thresholds between each anode site demonstrated all groups not to be statistically different. The current study, a first-of-its-kind formal evaluation of anode location for pedicle screw tEMG testing, demonstrated very strong repeatability and strong correlation with different locations of anode placement. These results suggest that there is no need to change the side of the anode for testing of left versus right screws, further supporting that placing an anode electrode into gluteal muscle is sufficient and will avoid a sharp ground needle in the surgical field.