Introduction:

awake craniotomy for brain tumors surgery is a technique that is performed for tumors located on eloquent areas. However, a few articles has been published in reference to how the patient perceives this experience. Our objective is to describe the emotional experience of patients undergoing intraoperative awakening for the treatment of gliomas.

Materials and Methods:

Retrospective review of 16 patients operated between January 2015 and October 2017, who underwent awake craniotomy. Six patients who met the inclusion criteria were identified. After the surgery, standardized surveys were carried out, in the first instance, where the following were evaluated: sociodemographic data, level of anxiety during intraoperative awakening, fear of anesthesia and level of information about the disease. In a second instance, a subjective interview was conducted by a Psychologist.

Results:

There were 4 mans and 2 womens with average age was 30.66 years. Regarding anxiety, we observed that 60% of patients had a low anxiety level, 40% had a medium level of anxiety, and we emphasized that no patient had a high level of anxiety. Regarding the fear of anesthesia and surgery, 67% were not afraid, while the remaining 37% claim to have fear of death or sequelae. Regarding the level of information that was provided by the doctor, 17% was excellent, 33% very complete, 33% indicated that the information was sufficient and the remaining 17% indicated that it was scarce.

Conclusion:

We emphasize that surgery with intraoperative awakening is well tolerated. From the practical lessons learned we emphasize the importance of the preoperative interview where the objective of the procedure is explained in detail and which are the steps to follow, in order to maximize cooperation.

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