• Tsui-Fen Yang, Jia-Chi Wang, Sanford P C Hsu, Cheng-Chia Lee, Chun-Fu Lin, Jan-Wei Chiu, Chih-Jou Lai, Rai-Chi Chan, and Shinn-Shing Lee.
• Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei 11217, Taiwan; Department of Physical Therapy and Assistive Technology, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei 11217, Taiwan. Electronic address: tfyang@vghtpe.gov.tw.
• J Clin Anesth. 2015 May 1;27(3):252-5.

AbstractDuring surgical removal of tumors of the skull base or cerebellopontine angle with brainstem compression, the vagus nerve is at a high risk for injury that can result in permanent or transient swallowing and speech dysfunction. Intramuscular recording of cricothyroid muscle can be used for vagal nerve mapping during intraoperative neurophysiologic monitoring so as to prevent the above complications. However, it is a small muscle that lies beneath the strap muscles over the anterior neck and is not easily accessible by a blind approach. Here, we present a case in which cricothyroid muscle was identified for precise electrode placement under ultrasound guidance during preparation for intraoperative monitoring. We concluded that localization of the cricothyroid muscle by ultrasonography proved to be a feasible and easy technique, and the compound muscle action potential recorded by this approach is clearly recognizable during intraoperative vagal nerve mapping.Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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