ANCONA – A surgery to remove the “awake” brain tumor in a young patient was scheduled today at the Operating Block of the Marche University Hospital. This procedure, which has been in use for several years in the Neurosurgery Division directed by Roberto Trignani, allows optimizing the removal of brain tumors in functional areas of the brain while preserving the functions. The patient is “awake” during the procedure and provides valuable clinical information to the surgical and anesthesiology team to guide the procedure safely. To date, in the Marche University Hospital, about 180 patients with brain tumors located in areas called “eloquenti” have been operated on in “awake”.
The operation will present two peculiarities: the surgical procedure will be performed in two stages within the same operating session: a first stage in “awake” to remove the part of the tumor in the left temporal functional area (the one that governs language) and a second stage under general anesthesia to remove the deeper adjoining component of the tumor; a new digital technology will be used which, through virtual reality during the preoperative phase and during the “awake” phase, will make it possible to optimize the management of anxiety, improve patient comfort and reduce the pharmacological intake. Virtual reality devices replace the real environment with a simulated one. The entire procedure is carried out in a multidisciplinary environment: neuroanaesthesiological (Edoardo Barboni), neurosurgical (Stefano Vecchioni, Roberto Trignani), neuropsychological (Silvia Bonifazi).