Brain Tumor – Surgery

Transcript

Surgery is actually the first step. And as we talked about earlier, defining what type of tumor an individual has, it has an extremely important role in their therapy. If a surgeon can remove as much of the tumor out as possible, that certainly portends a good prognosis. There are certain areas of the brain that neurosurgeon would be less likely to want to venture into, to attempt to extract or resect the tumor. Those include areas such as Broca’s areas and the dominant, usually left, hemisphere, which certainly can affect language. And for some individuals, if in fact it’s located on the motor strip can affect motor function of the contralateral side of the body. Most neurosurgeons at times will take just biopsies. If in fact, the lesion encompasses the entire hemisphere or crosses over from one hemisphere to the other, they want to attempt to do a, what we call a gross total resection as it anatomically would, would not be possible.

And if attempted could result in significant neurologic injury. Another reason for a neurosurgeon not doing surgery on a brain tumor is if in fact the tumor is located within the brain stem itself. And brain stem is an area that is very, very sensitive to any type of manipulation, has just about everything we experience as humans go through the brain stem. So motor function, sensory function, some of our thinking is actually in the very top part of the brainstem or mesencephalon, the thalamus. So, usually deep seated tumors, a neurosurgeon will not recommend doing surgery for. Usually the individual if in fact the surgery goes well again, will usually be out of the hospital in about 24 to 48 hours. And usually will be seeing me in approximately three to five days after they’re discharged from the hospital.