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Awake Craniotomy Surgery in Pediatrics: A Systematic Review
Aisha Nasser Al Fudhaili1, Fatma Al-Busaidi2, Zahra Merza Madan2
1College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Suhar, Sultanate of Oman.
Insights
Awake craniotomy in children is a safe and effective procedure for tumor resection near functional brain areas. This method helps prevent significant motor and language deficits after surgery.
Area of Science:
- Neurosurgery
- Pediatric Neurology
- Oncology
Background:
- Awake craniotomy is a specialized technique to preserve neurological function during brain lesion resection.
- This study reviews published outcomes of awake craniotomy in pediatric patients.
Approach:
- A systematic literature search was conducted across PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Wiley.
- Keywords included "awake brain surgery," "pediatrics," "children," "awake craniotomy," and "tumors."
- 16 relevant articles were selected after initial screening and full-text review.
Key Points:
- The mean age of pediatric patients undergoing awake craniotomy was 12.23 years.
- Tumor resection was the primary indication for the procedure.
- Complete recovery was observed in 47.9% of cases, with 7.5% experiencing speech deficits.
Conclusions:
- Awake brain surgery is a feasible and safe option for pediatric tumor resections.
- The technique effectively prevents postoperative motor and language deficits in children.
Background:
Awake craniotomy is a unique method to prevent motor deficits during the resection of lesions located in or close to functional areas. We sought to study the outcomes of pediatric craniotomy on published studies.
Methods:
The search for articles was performed through multiple search engines: PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Wiley. The following search terms were used for screening the titles and abstracts: "awake brain surgery" and "children" or "pediatrics," "awake craniotomy," and "children" or "pediatrics," "pediatrics awake craniotomy," "awake brain surgery pediatrics," and "tumors." On initial screening of the titles and abstracts, 54 articles were found. After a thorough review of the full texts of obtained articles and removing duplicates, 16 articles remained.
Results:
The mean age group was 12.23 years. There was a slight difference between genders who underwent awake craniotomy in the pediatric age group, 52.7% male and 47.3% for female. Tumor resection was the most common indication of the surgery. Almost half (47.9%) experienced complete recovery following the surgery. However, of those who had complicated recovery, 7.5% experienced a speech deficit.
Conclusions:
This systematic review summarized that awake brain surgery can prevent significant motor and language deficits postoperatively in children after tumor resection as it is considered a feasible and safe procedure.
