Intravenous lidocaine infusion therapy and intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring in adolescents undergoing idiopathic scoliosis correction: A retrospective study.

Background: Posterior spinal instrumentation and fusion is an established surgical procedure for the correction of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring is standard practice for this procedure. Anesthetic agents can have different, but significant, effects on neurophysiological monitoring outcomes.

Aim: To determine if intravenous lidocaine infusion therapy has an impact on the intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring during posterior spinal instrumentation and fusion for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.

Methods: Following ethical approval, we conducted a retrospective review of charts and the archived intraoperative neurophysiological data of adolescents undergoing posterior spinal instrumentation and fusion for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring data included the amplitude of motor evoked potentials and the amplitude and latency of somatosensory evoked potentials. A cohort who received intraoperative lidocaine infusion were compared to those who did not.

Results: Eighty-one patients were included in this analysis, who had surgery between February 4, 2016 and April 22, 2021: 39 had intraoperative intravenous lidocaine infusion and 42 did not. Based on hourly snapshot data, there was no evidence that lidocaine infusion had a detrimental effect on the measured change from baseline for MEP amplitudes in either lower (mean difference 41.9; 95% confidence interval -304.5 to 388.3; p = .182) or upper limbs (MD -279.0; 95% CI -562.5 to 4.4; p = .054). There was also no evidence of any effect on the measured change from baseline for SSEP amplitudes in either lower (MD 16.4; 95% CI -17.7 to 50.5; p = .345) or upper limbs (MD -2.4; 95% CI -14.5 to 9.8; p = .701). Finally, there was no evidence of a difference in time to first reportable neurophysiological event (hazard ratio 1.13; 95% CI 0.61 to 2.09; p = .680).

Conclusions: Data from these two cohorts provide preliminary evidence that intravenous lidocaine infusion has no negative impact on intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring during PSIF for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.