ORIGINAL ARTICLE   

Journal of Neurosurgical Sciences 2023 May 09

DOI: 10.23736/S0390-5616.22.05675-2

Copyright © 2022 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Perioperative seizure in patients undergoing brain mapping under awake craniotomy for language-related eloquent region gliomas: a prospective study

Maysam ALIMOHAMADI ^{1, 2, 3} ✉, Ahmad POUR-RASHIDI ², Amirhossein LARIJANI ², Mohammad RAHMANI ², Kasra HENDI ², Reza SHARIAT MOHARARI ⁴, Samira RAMINFARD ¹, Hamideh AJAM ⁵, Venelin GERGANOV ³

¹ Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Research Center, Neuroscience Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; ² Department of Neurosurgery, Sina Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; ³ International Neuroscience Institute, Hannover, Germany; ⁴ Department of Anesthesiology, Sina Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; ⁵ Section of Neuropsychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine Research Center, Imam Khomeini Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

BACKGROUND: Awake craniotomy (AC) is standard of care for lesions of eloquent brain areas. One important complication during AC is occurrence of intraoperative seizure (IOS), reported to occur among 3.4-20% of the patients. In this study, we report our experience with IOS during AC for resection of gliomas of the language eloquent regions and evaluate the predisposing factors and consequences.
METHODS: Patients who underwent AC for language related regions of the dominant hemisphere from August 2018 to June 2021 were enrolled. The rate of IOS during AC and relationship between predisposing factors and IOS were evaluated.
RESULTS: Sixty-five patients were enrolled (mean age: 44.4±12.5 years). Among 6 patients with IOS (9.2%), only one needed conversion to general anesthesia (GA) due to repeated seizures; while in the remaining 5, AC accomplished successfully despite one seizure attack in the awake phase. Tumor location (especially premotor cortex lesions, P=0.02, uOR:12.0, CI: 1.20-119.91), higher tumor volume (P=0.008, uOR: 1.9, CI: 1.06-1.12) and a functional tumor margin during surgery (P=0.000, uOR: 3.4, CI: 1.47-12.35) were significantly linked with IOS.
CONCLUSIONS: Occurrence of IOS was associated with a longer ICU stay after surgery and worse immediate neurological outcome, but had no impact on the late neurological status. IOS can usually be managed during AC without need to converting to GA. Those with larger tumors, frontal premotor lesions and positive brain mapping are susceptible to IOS. Early neurological deterioration observed after IOS, seems to be transient with no major long-term consequence on the neurological outcome.

KEY WORDS: Craniotomy; Brain mapping; Glioma; Language; Seizures