Since launching its new service in April, Bespoke Healthcare has provided intra-operative monitoring (IOM) during 100 operations as surgeons look to minimise risks during complex spine surgery.

Healthcare establishments including Oswestry Orthopaedic Hospital, Hope Hospital and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital have all commissioned the service, which provides surgeons with immediate feedback and warnings before permanent nerve injury has occurred.

Somatosensory Evoked Potentials (SSEPs), Transcranial Electrical Motor Evoked Potential (TcMEP or MEP) and Electromyography (EMG) techniques have all been utilised, dependent upon the patients’ individual circumstances.

Gwam Rajiah, managing director of Bespoke Healthcare, said: “We live in highly litigious times, and intra-operative monitoring has been proven to increase the safety of patients.

“There is a growing demand for IOM to become compulsory, and now that the technology has developed significantly and reliability is second-to-none, we would back any call to make this an indispensable factor in corrective surgeries for spines.”

Bespoke Healthcare is widely acknowledged as the leading independent neurophysiology provider for public and private hospitals throughout the United Kingdom.

Based at Millennium City Park, Preston, the company recently unveiled a major management restructure and announced an increased turnover in 2009 of £1 million.

The organisation saw over 4,000 patients last year, and hospitals who have benefitted from their services include Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, Wrightington, Wigan & Leigh Foundation Trust and Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust.