Utilization of personal digital assistants (PDA) for intraoperative naming tasks in awake surgery

The naming task, one of the most important tasks for screening essential language function, is widely used in awake surgery. We employed personal digital assistants (PDA) for the display of objects in three patients performing the naming task during awake surgery for gliomas adjacent to the language area in the left hemisphere. The compact, light-weight, self-illuminated instrument can easily be held close to the patient's face. None had difficulty seeing the screen despite the presence of the surgical drape around the face. The examiner could easily change the displayed objects with a click. However, the PDA screen is too small for use in auditory comprehension tasks such as the Token Test.