AccScience Publishing / BH / Volume 3 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.36922/bh.3802
REVIEW ARTICLE

Post-operative intensive care unit admissions following elective craniotomy for primary brain tumor: A narrative review

Pavel Salvador Pichardo-Rojas1 Siddharth Shah2* Mariali Palacios-Cruz3 Emmanuel Beltran-Gutierrez4 Mario Torres-Chavez5 Jose Alfonso Alvarez-Castro6 Adrian Coria-Medrano7
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1 Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery, UTHealth Neuroscience, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Texas, United States of America
2 Department of Neurosurgery, RCSM Government Medical College Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India
3 Department of Neurosurgery, Universidad Veracruzana, Veracruz, México
4 UHS Southern California Medical Education Consortium, California, United States of America
5 Facultad de Medicina Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Mexicali, Baja California, México
6 Department of Neurosurgical Onxology, National Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery City, Mexico
7 Programa de Maestría en Ciencias en Neurobiología, Instituto de Neurobiología, Campus UNAM-Juriquilla, Juriquilla, Querétaro, México
Brain & Heart 2025, 3(1), 3802 https://doi.org/10.36922/bh.3802
Submitted: 30 May 2024 | Revised: 24 December 2024 | Accepted: 17 January 2025 | Published: 12 February 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

Primary brain tumors (PBTs) refer to the growth of abnormal cells originating in the brain. These tumors account for approximately two percent of all cancers in the adult population of the United States. Patients diagnosed with glioblastoma, one of the most common malignant PBTs, often require treatments in intensive care unit (ICU). Surgical removal of PBTs through craniotomy is often the first-line treatment for many types of brain tumors. ICU admission following major surgery like craniotomy is considered a standard of care in many healthcare systems. ICU provides access to specialized equipment, such as mechanical ventilators, continuous renal replacement therapy machines, continuous electroencephalogram monitoring, and invasive hemodynamic monitoring devices, which might be essential for the care of these patients. Understanding potential complications is essential for healthcare professionals to monitor patients more effectively and guide decision-making for optimal management. Over the years, perceptions of ICU utilization have shifted, raising questions about whether ICU admission is always the right choice for patients who have undergone brain surgery. Traditional scoring systems may not always demonstrate the necessity of ICU care for patients undergoing elective craniotomy for PBTs. Further research is needed to identify the most effective strategies for optimizing patient care, determining the need for ICU care in specific cases, and minimizing costs in neurosurgery.

Keywords
Neurosurgery
Craniotomy
Primary brain tumor patients
Intensive care unit
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no competing interests.
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