Rare Case of Awake Craniotomy Guided by Navigation for a Tumour in the Language area that Completely Preserved Function

Introduction

Eloquent brain areas are parts of the brain that are important for speech, movement, sensation, and thinking. They are important for neurosurgery. Surgery in these areas is very difficult because even small injuries can cause permanent neurological problems. Tumours in the eloquent cortex need careful planning, cutting-edge technology, and a lot of surgical skill.

Case Presentation

A young man went to Yatharth Hospital in Noida (Sector-110) with a small tumour in his brain that was 1.5 cm by 1 cm and was in the language area. Even though the lesion was not very big, its location put the patient at a high risk of having trouble speaking after surgery.  

Planning and going into surgery

Because the tumor was in such a difficult-to-reach place, it was decided to do a navigation-guided awake craniotomy. This method lets doctors check the patient's neurological function during surgery, which helps them remove as much of the tumor as possible while keeping important brain functions intact. We used advanced neuro-navigation technology, which is sometimes called "GPS for the brain," to find the lesion with millimeter-level accuracy. This made sure that the surgery was done in the best way possible and that healthy brain tissue around the area wasn't moved around unnecessarily.

Functional Monitoring During Surgery

The patient's language function was checked on a regular basis during the awake phase of surgery. He was asked to answer questions and make sentences, which let the surgical team keep an eye on his understanding and speech production in real time. This constant feedback was very important for finding and keeping the functional language cortex while safely removing the tumor.

Result

The surgical team was able to remove almost all of the tumor while keeping all of the patient's neurological and language functions intact by using the best parts of awake craniotomy and neuro-navigation. The patient got better without any problems with speech or thinking.

Final Thoughts

This case shows how important it is to have a multidisciplinary team, advanced surgical technology, thorough patient counseling, and surgical expertise when dealing with tumors in eloquent brain areas. Navigation-guided awake craniotomy is still one of the best ways to get the best cancer outcomes while keeping quality of life high.

Importance in the Clinic

These kinds of cases don't happen very often, which shows how much Yatharth Hospital cares about providing cutting-edge, patient-centered neurosurgical care using the latest techniques.