Awake brain surgery during pregnancy: a look at the reported cases
Original title: Awake craniotomy for brain tumors during pregnancy: An updated scoping review.
How far along is this research?
- Lab cells
- Animals
- Review
- Tested in people
This looks across many earlier studies rather than running a new one.
This surgery has been done in a small number of pregnant patients, but only single cases have been written up, so there are no firm rules yet on when to use it.
The short version
Doctors reviewed every published report of pregnant women who had awake brain tumor surgery, and all of them delivered healthy babies.
What was studied. Researchers searched medical databases for reports of awake craniotomy in pregnant patients. They found 11 studies covering 11 patients, all of them single case reports or one small group of cases.
What they found. The surgeries were done in all stages of pregnancy. Most of the tumors were gliomas. Every case reported a successful tumor removal, and all the babies were born healthy. The mothers' brain function looked good in the short term. How they did over the long run varied, and it depended on the type of tumor they had.
What this means, and what it doesn't
What it could mean: If you are pregnant and have a brain tumor in a sensitive part of the brain, awake surgery may be an option worth asking about. It lets surgeons remove more of the tumor while limiting the anesthesia the baby is exposed to. It takes a careful team of specialists, and it is not right for everyone.
What it doesn't mean: This is not a new treatment and it is not a cure. It is a summary of a small number of published cases, not a real study that compared this surgery to other choices. Only 11 patients are described here. Cases that went badly may never have been published, so the picture may look better than it really is. There are no firm guidelines yet on who should have this surgery. The authors say larger studies are still needed.
Source: PubMed, May 19, 2026 · Read the original
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