Table 3.

Clinical studies evaluating saphenous SSEP utilization during LLIF

Study	Sample size, treatment, study design	Key findings—benefits of saphenous SSEPs	Key findings—limitations of saphenous SSEPs
Silverstein et al. [30] (2014)	41 Patients; LLIF at any level; Retrospective case series	In 5 patients, SSEP changes were noted after retractor expansion, without associated EMG changes; 3 of these patients had postoperative femoral nerve deficits. No false-negative SSEP alerts.	Signals may be affected by anesthetic agents, body habitus, depth of saphenous nerve, and medical comorbidities.
Jain et al. [37] (2020)	62 Patients; LLIF at any level; Retrospective review	Saphenous SSEPs demonstrated 52%–100% sensitivity and 90%–100% specificity in detecting postoperative femoral nerve complications.	Saphenous SSEP could not be reliably established in 16% of patients.

SSEP, somatosensory-evoked potential; LLIF, lateral lumbar interbody fusion; EMG, electromyography.