Scalp block for awake craniotomy in a patient with a frontal bone mass: a case report

• Published in: Anesthesiology and pain medicine 2012, Vol.1 (3), p.187-190
• Main Authors: Amiri, Hamid Reza, Kouhnavard, Marjan, Safari, Saeid
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2228-7523; 2228-7531
• DOI: 10.5812/aapm.3608

"Anesthesia" for awake craniotomy is a unique clinical condition that requires the anesthesiologist to provide changing states of sedation and analgesia, to ensure optimal patient comfort without interfering with electrophysiologic monitoring and patient cooperation, and also to manipulate cerebral and systemic hemodynamics while guaranteeing adequate ventilation and patency of airways. Awake craniotomy is not as popular in developing countries as in European countries. This might be due to the lack of information regarding awake craniotomy and its benefits among the neurosurgeons and anesthetists in developing countries. From the economic perspective, this procedure may decrease resource utilization by reducing the use of invasive monitoring, the duration of the operation, and the length of postoperative hospital stay. All these reasons also favor its use in the developing world, where the availability of resources still remains a challenge. In this case report we presented a successful awake craniotomy in patient with a frontal bone mass.