A 31-year-old G5P1 patient with unremarkable past medical history at 29 weeks of gestation was diagnosed with a gigantic left frontotemporal brain mass. Initial clinical management as an inpatient achieved an improvement in the symptoms. The patient and surgical team agreed to schedule a cesarean delivery at 32 weeks of gestation if no neurological deterioration was observed. Intraoperative course with general endotracheal anesthesia and bilateral transversus abdominis plane block was uneventful and promoted efficient postoperative pain control. Seven days after delivery, the patient underwent craniotomy for brain tumor resection. This report describes the anesthetic management of a patient with an intracranial tumor during pregnancy.
Reoperation as a result of increased intracranial pressure (ICP) associated with cyst formation in an intracranial tumor resection cavity is a rare clinical condition. We report two cases of reoperation as a result of raised ICP associated with cyst formation in the tumor resection cavity, one arising after glioma resection and the other after meningioma resection. In both cases, a “valve”-like structure was noted intraoperatively in the roof region of the tumor resection cavity. Surgical resection of the “valve”-like structure led to slow regression over several months after the reoperation rather than to immediate disappearance of the cyst. Both cases illustrate that the “valve”-like structure formed in the roof region of the tumor resection cavity may be responsible for cyst formation. Surgical resection of it provides good long-term outcomes in such patients though short-term outcomes are unsatisfactory; we speculate that if the resection of the cortical tissue around the “valve”-like structure is enough wide, its return may be avoided.
The Impact of Provider Volume on Mortality after Intracranial Tumor Resection and Outcome and Cost of Craniotomy Performed to Treat Tumors in Regional Academic Referral Centers
