New technologies for low-grade glioma surgery

Abstract

Brain surgery has come far from the primitive methods used thousands of years ago. In the last hundred years alone, we have come across countless breakthroughs like the invention of bipolar coagulation, the surgical microscope, microsurgical techniques and a large variety of surgical instruments. The latest years have brought us neuro-navigation, intra-operative imaging techniques and brain activity monitoring. Low-grade glioma surgery, in particular, has taken advantage a lot from all these new methods, bringing great benefits for the patients: the safe extent of resection has grown progressively and tumours located in eloquent areas that were thought until recently to be inoperable, have started to be removed in safe conditions. The purpose of this paper is to present these new technologies as a recap for neurosurgical professionals.

Keywords

• intraoperative
• imaging
• neuro-navigation
• low-grade glioma
• brain monitoring