“Is general anesthesia used during brain tumor removal?”
My friend is 30 years old. He's required have brain tumor removal surgery next month. Is general anesthesia used during brain tumor removal, or do you need to be awake?
8 Answers
Generally craniotomies are done asleep
Yes
Typically yes, general anesthesia is required for brain tumor removal.
Dr. J. Arthur Saus
Anesthesiologist
Generally, yes, general anesthesia is used for most brain surgery. However, there are particular types of brain surgery that are done while the patient is awake. The best answer fro this question in your particular case into talk with the neurosurgeon and anesthesiologist involved in your particular surgery,
Depending on the tupe of tumor. There are tumors were patienf is anesthetize for the opening of the cranium and after this we wake the patient and do the tumor resection with tge patient awake is called an awake craniotomy, this is done to preserve the integrity of the Central Nervous System
It depends on where the tumor is. If it’s located close or near the speech center or near areas that control movement, your friend may need to be somewhat awake during the surgery and be asked to perform certain actions like moving a limb or answering a question. Believe it or not, the brain actually doesn’t feel any pain and can be worked on while talking to the patient. The parts that hurt are the skin and skull and those can be numbed really well before starting.
If the tumor is not in a critical area, we would do general anesthesia for the entire procedure.
If the tumor is not in a critical area, we would do general anesthesia for the entire procedure.
The vast majority of brain tumors are removed while the patient is under general anesthesia. In a very small subset of patients undergoing brain surgery, part of the procedure must be performed with the patient either semi-awake or completely awake. Typically, this is done to make sure that the brain tissue removed is not critical for the patient's cognitive functioning. Their ability to speak and follow simple commands may be tested as the surgeon probes various parts of the brain. Even in these rare cases, the patients are typically kept mostly or completely asleep for the portion of the surgery leading up to the critical moment and for the remainder of the procedure after the critical part has been completed.
Most of brain removal surgery require general anesthesia.
