Source: The First Affiliated Hospital
Written by: The First Affiliated Hospital
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

A 33 year old high school teacher underwent an awake brain tumor surgery in the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University. The tumor in the language function area was totally removed while she was awake to perform certain tasks.

The patient complained about occasional word missing for 6 months, and one seizure attack 2 weeks ago. The MR later indicated a left temporal glioma (high grade). It locates in the angular gyrus which plays an important role in speech.

Speech ability scale was recorded before operation. Functional MRI was done to show areas with speech function. Neuronavigation was applied to make a mini-invasive craniotomy. After the brain was exploded, the patient was awake. She was cooperative and answered all the questions when intra-operative direct electrical stimulations were done. Her difficulty in reading Arabic numerals was noticed when the posterior margin of the tumor was stimulated. The surgeon knew that the area is vital and cannot be removed or cut through to access the tumor.

The malignant tumor was totally resected, which is confirmed by the postoperative MRI. The patient recovered well and was discharged in day 9.

The multidiscipline team includes professors below: Jinglong LIU and Chao YANG from Neurosurgery Department; Wenqi HUANG and Nan JIANG from the Anesthesiology Department; Xi CHEN from the Rehabilitation Department; and Qilin DAI from the Neurology Department.