Necessary for nerve stimulation?

Question

My mother recently underwent a lamencectmy for her spine. At the end of her operation, we came to see her and above her forehead was a blot, huge blot, of blood. we asked the nurse what it was and she simply said "they used a needle to stimulate her nerves." why was this necessary? can somebody explain more?

Answer 1

there are different types of laminectomy and it depends on the underlying reason why your mom had one int he first place.

some people have them if they have spinal cord stenosis..or narrowing due to compression by the vertebral bone.if this was the case it is possible for some of the tiny nerves which leave the spinal cord to be damaged.

the nerves supply different portions of the body and not necessarily the same area or level of the spinal cord it originated from.

this is why people may experience pain sensations when they have damage to tissues and the nerve supplying them...for example...the heart..when one is about to have a heart attack the may experience pain in the upper back...upper chest...medial sides of arm...upper portion of neck...as u can see these are not all in the region of the heart.

so what im trying to say is..yes it is possible that they used the needle to prick her and determine if she still has function of the nerves suppling that area.

if u are concerned that it was not necessary you should speak with her doctors ..

Answer 2

I'm a little puzzled by this.  The previous poster is correct in that nerves travel in counterintuitive places and, when viscera are involved, you can have "referred pain" to areas that are not obviously related to what is affected.

I am not an expert in laminectomy, but there are no nerves that travel from the spine to the head, and generally laminectomies are lower down in the spinal column anyway (thoracic or lumbar areas, most often).  I know that post-laminectomy there can be nerve root damage, but that would not affect the face.  I can't think of any reason that they would be testing the cranial nerves intra- or post-surgically, unless there was something else going on.

I am not sure what you mean by a 'blot of blood'--do you mean a bruise, or is there actually a scab or dried blood?  I am not sure that what the nurse said was correct--maybe it is, but I just can't think of any reason for a mark to be on her forehead.  They certainly do use needles to test the nerves, but they are very thin needles and they should never leave "a huge blot", even if they did have some reason to test the cranial nerves.

I would ask the doctor (or have your mother ask).  And if you find out there is a reason, let us know.  ;-)