Chapters authored
Awake Craniotomy and Brain Mapping for Brain Tumor Resection in Pediatric Patients
Brain tumor resection in pediatric patients constitutes a real challenge. In order to improve survival and to preserve neurological function, we will further on describe our experience with awake craniotomy and functional mapping for brain tumor resection in pediatric patients. Although our experience with this technique was relatively short, we did not observe complications, and a gross total resection was successfully achieved in all cases. In the postoperative period we did not find any new deficiency in our patients. We observed functional recovery - motor and sensitive aphasia, motor strength improvement in hemiplegic patients, and recovery of neurodevelopmental milestones during follow-up. In our experience, the use of awake craniotomy and brain mapping for brain tumor resection in pediatric patients is truly safe and reliable.
Part of the book: Central Nervous System Tumors
Multimodal Neuronavigation for Brain Tumor Surgery
The current neuronavigation techniques increase safety and surgeon confidence during neurosurgical procedure performance. However, its real usefulness remains in integrating multimodal information from advanced magnetic resonance imaging, as tractography (DTI), functional studies that evaluate motor and sensitive language, motor function (BOLD techniques with different paradigms), and nuclear medicine. At the operating room, the fusion of sonographic information acquired in real-time with the predefined plan increase the chance to achieve gross-total resection of primary brain tumors. Combining these different image modalities with brain mapping and motor stimulation information in selected cases is possible, increasing surgery safety. In this review, we present our experience with multimodal neuronavigation to treat brain tumors in pediatric patients.
Part of the book: Central Nervous System Tumors