Day surgery awake craniotomy for removing brain tumours: technical note describing a simple protocol

Day surgery awake craniotomy has been recently proposed for patients harbouring supratentorial brain tumours. This technique has been demonstrated to be safe and effective in a large cohort of patients operated by one neurosurgeon at the University of Toronto. The aim of this paper is to present a technical description of the protocol that has been adopted for these patients and a discussion of relevant practical issues which may arise. In particular, patient eligibility criteria are briefly discussed and intra- and post-operative management are presented. Key messages for those who are going to start to perform day surgery awake craniotomies include the preparation of a fast, simple and standardized protocol for the treatment of these patients and cooperation among patients and their care-givers (surgeon, anesthetist, nurses, family members).