Patent ID: 7959577

Claim:
A method of detecting if a nerve is above or below a given region of a device in tissue, the method comprising: positioning a guidewire within the tissue of a patient; positioning a device within the tissue using the guidewire, wherein the device comprises a flexible elongate body having an outer surface including an upper surface that is opposite a lower surface and plurality of anodes and cathodes on the outer surface; determining a threshold amount of energy required to stimulate a response in the patient by applying increasing levels of energy to form a substantially continuous broadcast field between the plurality of anodes and cathodes on the upper surface such that the broadcast field is formed by adjacent bipole pairs of anodes and cathodes which share alternating anodes, to determine the first stimulation level at which the nerve responds; determining a threshold amount of energy required to stimulate a response in the patient from a plurality of anodes and cathodes on the lower surface of the device by applying energy to form a substantially continuous broadcast field from the lower surface; and determining if the nerve is closer to the upper or lower surface regions by comparing the threshold amounts from the upper surface and the lower surface.