ABSTRACT
Background: Glioma is one of the most common intracranial tumors, the treatment for which is surgical resection. Cerebral gliomas in eloquent brain areas are closely associated with important structures. The deep location of such gliomas renders complete resection difficult overlaying structures can be injured, causing hemiplegia, aphasia, coma, and other severe complications. The degree of resection directly influences the prognosis of patients. The application of neuronavigation enables the accurate localization of lesions during surgery, significantly improving microneurosurgery. The accuracy of navigation, however, has typically been compromised by several factors, including operation error, shifting of registration system, and intraoperative brain tissue deformation (brain shift). Aim of Study: The aim of the study is to evaluate and demonstrate the efficacy of neuronavigation in the management of brain gliomas. Patients and Methods: This is a prospective randomized clinical trial study included 35 patients with brain glioma were operated for excision or biopsy taken. Results: Localization of burr hole and craniotomy flap was excellent in 33 patients (94.2%) and fault in 2 cases (5.7%), 29 patients (82.8%) had near total excision of the lesions, and 6 patients (17.1%) had burr hole biopsy, intra operative course was smooth in 33 patients (94.2%) with no intra operative complications, 2 cases (5.7%) developed intra operative bleeding that was due to liver problems. Reading the post operative imaging shows that 27 patients (77.1%) had mild to moderate post operative edema around the site of the lesion, the other eight cases were free of hemorrhage, infarction or edema. Conclusion: We found that neuronavigation is very helpful in our cases in localization of the lesions, decreasing time of surgery, reducing morbidity and mortality and decreasing hospital stay. There are concerns about navigation systems including time consuming, calculation and registration, restriction of space and view inside the operating field, and so on, we didn’t find these issues as obstacles in our work, but we found that there are many advantages that can be helpful in the process of operation.