[Surgery of brain tumors]

Treatment of brain tumors represents a very important chapter of neurological surgery. In fact, surgery is of primary importance in the management of benign or potentially anaplastic brain tumors. It not only provides histological diagnosis but radical surgical removal, when feasible, is the goal standard treatment of a very large group of these lesions. Surgery is directed specifically against tumoral processes which are widely different and heterogeneous anatomically and histologically. Some of them are benign and their treatment is essentially relaying on surgery. Others are anaplastic or malignant and surgery has to be associated with other treatment modalities [radiotherapy and (or) chemotherapy] but remains crucial for the histological assessment of the lesion even obtained from stereotactical biopsy specimens. Whenever possible surgical resection must be proposed because it improves the patient's clinical and functional state and allows a better efficacy of complementary treatments when indicated. These factors correlates with the quality and length of the postoperative radiological and clinical remission.