Brain Tumor Surgery

Finding out you or a loved one has a brain tumor can feel overwhelming and may raise many questions. You want to know you’ll get leading-edge care from a team of compassionate experts you can trust.

At Baystate Health, we’re here to help ease your concerns. Our team includes highly trained neurosurgeons with advanced fellowship training in neurosurgical oncology. They provide the latest brain tumor treatments close to home, so you don’t have to travel outside western Massachusetts to receive expert care.

Why Choose Baystate Health for Brain Tumor Surgery?

When you choose Baystate Health for brain tumor surgery, you can expect:

• Excellent outcomes: We specialize in surgical techniques that lead to safer and more efficient operations, quicker recovery, and shorter hospital stays. Our length of stay in the intensive care unit (ICU) after brain tumor surgery is less than half the national average.
• Advanced technology: Our neurosurgeons use intraoperative 3D computed tomography (CT) scans in the operating room. These real-time images integrate with navigation systems that guide our surgeons through a personalized map of your brain or spine during surgery. They ensure our operations are highly precise and exact.
• Collaborative care: Surgery is just one part of effective brain tumor treatment. Our neurosurgeons work closely with radiation oncologists, medical oncologists, neuropathologists, and neuroradiologists. We meet regularly to discuss each patient’s needs and ensure you get the right treatment.
• Appropriate referrals: We have the skills, expertise, and technology to treat patients with most types of brain tumors. If you have a diagnosis that requires treatment beyond what we offer, we will refer you to another trusted center. Rest assured that no matter what, your best interest is our top priority. you’ll get the very best care when you come to our team.

Types of Brain Tumors We Treat

Our neurosurgeons treat both cancerous (malignant) and non-cancerous (benign) tumors that start in the brain (primary tumors) or spread to the brain from elsewhere in the body (secondary tumors).

The main types of primary brain tumors include:

• Gliomas: These tumors start in the brain and spinal cord’s support cells.
• Meningiomas: These tumors begin in the protective layer of tissue covering your brain and spinal cord (meninges).
• Schwannomas: These tumors start in Schwann cells, which cover nerve cells.

Several other types of tumors can start near the brain and cause brain symptoms, including:

• Central nervous system lymphomas: Rarely, this blood cancer starts in the brain or spinal cord.
• Chordomas: These rare bone tumors start in the skull or spinal bones.
• Pituitary tumors: These growths form on the pituitary gland, an endocrine gland at the base of the brain.

Brain Tumor Surgeries We Offer

A craniotomy is the most common type of brain tumor surgery. During a craniotomy, a neurosurgeon creates a small, precisely positioned window in the skull to access and remove a brain tumor.

We use specialized craniotomy techniques, including:

• Awake craniotomies: Baystate Health neurosurgeons have been performing awake craniotomies for more than 20 years. This innovative surgery involves keeping patients awake during the operation to monitor their speech and movement. This helps lower the chance that the surgery will affect critical brain functions and gives the surgeon confidence to remove the tumor as extensively as safely possible. Awake craniotomies require specialized expertise and are still not widely offered.
• Keyhole craniotomies: Also known as mini-craniotomies, these surgeries involve making a very small opening in the skull about a few centimeters wide. We use special surgical tools and a camera to remove the tumor in small pieces. This approach offers less swelling, quicker recovery, and shorter hospital stays.