Bed break-induced attenuation of downside leg sciatic nerve sensory and motor evoked potentials during lateral lumbar interbody (LLIF) fusion surgery

The possible mechanism of these downside leg alerts is compression or stretch of the sciatic nerve at the level of the pelvis, not leg ischemia. While none of the 18 alert case patients suffered postoperative deficits, best practice would be to partially or completely unbreak the bed as soon as feasible when the downside sciatic nerve distribution IONM signals are attenuated.