Some people recover well after brain surgery, but this can take some time. Other people have some problems, or long term difficulties. The problems you may have depends on the area of the brain where the tumour was (or still is if you only had part of the tumour removed).
Low-grade glioma occurs most often in young and middle-aged people, while malignant glial tumors, especially glioblastoma, occur in older adults. The median survival for patients with low-grade tumors may be more than 10 years, and for patients with high-grade tumors, it ranges from 1 to 3 years.
Depending on your age at diagnosis, the tumour may eventually cause your death. Or you may live a full life and die from something else. It will depend on your tumour type, where it is in the brain, and how it responds to treatment. Brain tumours can also be fast growing (high grade) and come back despite treatment.
Having treatment for a brain tumour is often life changing. Some people make a full recovery and are able to go back to work. How long it takes for you to recover depends on your individual situation. Everyone takes a different amount of time to recover.
You are likely to feel drowsy and sleepy after you wake up. This is normal and it happens because of the anaesthetic and painkillers. You, or your relatives, may also notice that your head or face are swollen and bruised. This swelling will go down over time.
Brain surgery might sound like a frightening procedure, but it is quite safe. Doctors who carry out these surgeries are very skilled specialists. You can share any concerns with your doctors and cancer nurse specialist. They will be able to tell you what will happen during the operation.
Some people who have had a brain tumour can develop side effects of treatment months or years later, such as: cataracts. problems with thinking, memory, language or judgement. epilepsy.
Within the overall glioblastoma patient population, tumor growth occurred in 53% of patients and varied greatly from patient to patient as assessed at 4 weeks (±2 weeks) following surgical resection of the tumor.
Even after surviving a moderate or severe TBI and receiving inpatient rehabilitation services, a person's life expectancy is 9 years shorter. TBI increases the risk of dying from several causes. Compared to people without TBI, people with TBI are more likely to die from: 57% are moderately or severely disabled.
The surgical removal by and large is the most effective treatment of brain tumor. With early treatment, more than 85% of patients survive for 5 years. The chances of survival are dropped to 40 % in case of late-stage cancers, when the tumor is large and cannot be removed surgically.
Almost 70 out of 100 people (almost 70%) with a grade 1 or grade 2 cranial meningioma survive their cancer for 10 years or more. Around 40 out of 100 people (around 40%) with a grade 3 meningioma survive their cancer or 10 years or more.
Although the average life expectancy after diagnosis is 14 to 16 months, approximately 1% of patients survive at least 10 years. Currently, the longest anyone has survived a glioblastoma is more than 20 years and counting.
Most patients are pretty active postoperatively and resume their normal activities within a few days, and often return to work around four to six weeks after surgery.
After surgery, you will be moved out of the operating theatre to a large area nearby with medical monitoring equipment (recovery room). Some people will go into the high dependency unit (HDU) or intensive care unit (ICU). You'll probably receive pain medicine through tubes or an intravenous drip.
Overall, the chance that a person will develop a malignant tumor of the brain or spinal cord in their lifetime is less than 1%.
Can you have a brain tumor with no symptoms? Brain tumors don't always cause symptoms. In fact, the most common brain tumor in adults, meningioma, often grows so slowly that it goes unnoticed. Tumors may not start causing symptoms until they become large enough to interfere with healthy tissues inside the brain.
Neurosurgery can cause some temporary swelling around the brain, so it's normal to experience memory loss after brain tumour removal or biopsy. You may also experience difficulties with your memory after brain surgery if surgeons had to remove brain cells that were responsible for your memory.
A major surgery and its treatments can cause changes in a personality and ability to think. Patients may experience challenges with their communication, concentration, memory and emotional abilities. Most brain tumor patients exhibit signs that are consistent with depression and agitation, especially post surgery.
Brain tumors and resection surgery cause physical changes to brain tissue and can lead to diffuse cognitive deficits, including problems with attention, memory, executive functioning, and information processing.
Personality changes can also simply be a natural reaction to receiving a brain tumour diagnosis or its impact on quality-of-life. This can have a huge effect on someone's mood and behaviour. Similarly, coping with many of the side-effects of a brain tumour or its treatments can drastically alter someone's mood.
Your Recovery
You will probably feel very tired for several weeks after surgery. You may also have headaches or problems concentrating. It can take a month or two to recover from surgery. Your cuts (incisions) may be sore after surgery.
Craniopharyngiomas typically are benign, but are difficult tumors to remove because of their location near critical structures deep in the brain.