Impulse Monitoring Provides IONM Support to University of Virginia Health System...

Impulse Monitoring Provides IONM Support to University of Virginia Health System Surgeons on Charity Mission to Trinidad

COLUMBIA, Md.--(Business Wire)--
"I can't think of anything more meaningful than to possess a
unique expertise and be willing to provide that talent freely to
others who are in dire need. This is a notion that is core to our
corporate values," said Impulse Monitoring CEO, Gene Cattarina in
response to learning of his team's successful support of surgeries in
Trinidad performed by orthopedic surgeon, Vincent Arlet, MD and
anesthesiologist, Thomas N. Pajewski, MD, PhD. Impulse Monitoring,
Inc. (IMI) is a leading provider of intraoperative neurophysiological
monitoring (IONM) services to hospitals. IONM assesses neurological
function involving the brain, spinal cord and related nerve structures
during surgery. Use of IONM facilitates the surgical process and can
reduce surgical risk by providing alerts to surgeons of potential harm
to the spinal cord or neural structures.

One case was performed at St. Claire Medical Clinic in Port of
Spain and involved a 48-year old female with severe spinal stenosis
who had several previous surgeries with implant failure. Dr. Arlet
removed the implant and inserted new instruments. IMI monitored
transcranial electric motor-evoked potentials, or tceMEPs, on the
patient to ensure sure everything was working, which was the case. Two
additional surgeries were performed at the Princess Elizabeth
Rehabilitation Center for Children, also in Port of Spain. One case
involved an 18-year old boy with an extremely severe cervical thoracic
kyphosis or curvature of the spine. IMI monitored the sensory nervous
system on this patient, as well as the tceMEPs. The other case
involved a 20-year old female with a severe s-curve idiopathic
scoliosis. All three surgeries were successful.

"It was an honor to be invited to work with Dr. Toby at the
Princess Elizabeth Centre for Handicapped Children in Port of Spain,
Trinidad," commented Dr. Arlet. "Thanks to the support of the
Foundation of Orthopaedic and Complex Spine (www.orthofocos.org) our
team could achieve successful and safe correction of very challenging
spinal deformities. There was nothing more gratifying than to see
patients that we had operated from a previous trip being happy,
straighter and pain free."

"I was able to visit the spinal clinic at Princess Elizabeth and
saw several patients in follow up who were previously operated on by
the Trinidad team," said Charlene St. Laurent, CNIM, the IMI
neurophysiologist who provided the monitoring services in Trinidad.
"It was great to meet these people and see first-hand evidence of the
contribution we are making."

"Too often, businesses spend too much time focusing on what they
can take, and not enough on what they can and should give. We believe
it is important to give back. So it is with great pride and
satisfaction that from time to time we lend our support to some of our
clients' charitable missions, such as the team from UVA," Cattarina
added.

About Impulse Monitoring

Impulse Monitoring, Inc. (IMI) provides intraoperative
neurophysiological monitoring (IONM) services to hospitals and other
facilities for spinal, nerve and brain-related surgeries. IONM allows
early detection of neurological compromise and identification of
functional neural structures during surgery. The scope of IMI's
service includes neurophysiologists who provide monitoring in the
operating room, supported by dedicated real-time, remote physician
monitoring. Visit the IMI website at: www.impulsemonitoring.com.

Rob Snow
Impulse Monitoring, Inc.
410-740-2370
RSnow@impulsemonitoring.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008