System and method for detecting and removing periodic non-physiological artifact from evoked potentials

An apparatus for automated analysis of evoked potentials, the apparatus comprising:

• an output coupled to at least one stimulating electrode to stimulate at least one peripheral nerve of a patient;
• an input coupled to at least one recording electrode to record an electrophysiological response comprising a plurality of resultant electrical waveforms generated by a nervous system of the patient in response to the stimulation from the at least one stimulating electrode;
• and
• at least one processor coupled to the output and the input, the at least one processor programmed to execute an automated evoked potential analysis algorithm for monitoring, detecting, identifying and eliminating non-physiological artifact noise in the physiological system from which the evoked potentials or ensemble averages of the evoked potentials are obtained, the automated evoked potential analysis algorithm configured to:
• determine whether ambient electrical noise or non-physiological artifact noise is present in a resultant electrical waveform of the plurality of electrical waveforms of the electrophysiological response;
• detecting, based on the determination, that the non-physiological artifact noise is present in the resultant electrical waveform, the detecting comprising:
• identifying in the electrophysiological response, at least one characteristic representative of a signal having the non-physiological artifact noise;
• classify the resultant electrical waveform as an artifact signal if the non-physiological artifact noise is present;
• remove the resultant electrical waveform that has been identified as the artifact signal from a collection of signals;
• generate an averaged evoked potential signal from the collection of signals;
• and
• generate positioning effect information about the patient using the averaged evoked potential signal.