A few important points about low-grade gliomas

  1.Definition: Low-grade glioma is also a kind of glioma, mainly refers to low-grade malignant glioma, not benign glioma, pathology is astrocytoma, oligodendroglioma and oligodendroglial cell.  2. Low-grade glioma cannot be observed but needs active surgery: Low-grade glioma grows at a constant rate, 4-8mm per year, and after growing for a period of time, usually 5-7, but it is not known exactly when, malignant transformation occurs, that is, interstitial transformation. After malignant transformation, the condition deteriorates rapidly and requires comprehensive treatment (surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, etc.). The current survival of patients with low-grade glioma without surgery or partial excision is nearly 5.9 years, while the average survival after total excision is up to 12 years.  3.Low-grade glioma is not asymptomatic: usually doctors say there are no symptoms, mainly no motor, language, sensory and visual field impairment. After careful examination, it is found that 30-50% of many patients have cognitive dysfunction, such as memory, emotion, decision making, judgment, working memory, etc. This also shows on the other hand that low-grade glioma cannot wait for observation and needs active treatment to How does the current surgery need to be done to alleviate the aggravation of symptoms; 4. The more this glioma is resected, the better the patient’s prognosis. However, since the patient has a long survival period, it is necessary to protect the patient’s function, and arousal surgery is an option to locate the patient’s cortex and subcortical structures in the arousal state, and the subcortical structures are more important.  5. For tumors that cannot be removed, observe follow-up or chemotherapy instead of radiotherapy, because radiotherapy can usually be received only once in a person’s life, and it is best to use it after the patient has become malignant, and radiotherapy can affect the patient’s cognitive function, chemotherapy can be used, and currently the side effects of chemotherapy are relatively low, and for some diffuse tumors, they can also be removed surgically after chemotherapy. Also observe that after a period of follow-up, the patient recovered after the first surgery with transient dysfunction, indicating that there is functional reconstruction of the brain, and we may be able to reduce the possibility of interstitial changes by operating again and removing part of the lesion.  6. Two kinds of wrong views: (1) Some doctors say his technique is very high, and if he removes the tumor exactly according to its boundary, it will not damage the function. The key is that this tumor has no boundary, and this type of resection cannot be expanded to remove it, we need to remove it according to the functional boundary, not the anatomical boundary; (2) Some doctors say, I can remove this tumor from you, as long as you don’t want your hand function or language function. I can cure this disease completely. In fact, this disease is not curable at present. Don’t believe in miracle doctors, believe in science, you ask him back, can you be sure of the cure? We want the patient to have a higher quality of life during his lifetime, not a disabled person. With arousal surgery, at least the time of high quality of life is prolonged without affecting the whole survival period.  We have recently completed two very good cases, which we will have time to show you in the future. One is the protection of intraoperative visual radiation, which protects the patient’s visual field and is very helpful for patients who drive, and one is the protection of the patient’s speech conduction pathway and transient naming disorder after surgery.