Psychological Characteristics of Patients Undergoing Awake Craniotomy With Dexmedetomidine: A Retrospective Analysis

Only few studies have investigated the psychological profile of patient candidates for awake craniotomy (AC). The aim of this study was to describe the multidisciplinary clinical protocol adopted in our hospital and to retrospectively explore differences in psychological characteristic of 51 patients, analyzing association with the tolerability of the procedure.

During the preoperative neuropsychological assessment, the Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale was administered to assess pain-related anxiety. Clinical characteristics and anesthesiological management were retrospectively recollected. The AC procedure was classified as "optimal" or "suboptimal" based on administration of rescue sedative midazolam doses because of psychomotor agitation or emotional distress in excess with respect to our anesthesiological protocol.

The awake procedure was considered optimal in 33 cases (64.7% of total sample). General anesthesia was never required in our patients. No significant differences between optimal and suboptimal groups were found. No single variable was significant as a predictor of outcome on the univariate analysis, and no multivariate predictive model was possible.

Although in our experience the Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale score was not useful in identifying candidates for AC procedures, our multidisciplinary approach provided good results with respect to the tolerability of AC surgery. However, more studies are required to identify psychological profiles and preoperative possible warning signs to find the best course of surgery for each patient.