Clinical, Epidemiological and Anatomopathological Characterization of Supratentorial Brain Tumor and its Post-Anesthetic Morbidity

Abstract

Introduction: Brain tumors are not frequent, but they have devastating effects.

Objective: To characterize patients with supratentorial brain tumor, according to clinical and pathological criteria.

Methods: An observational and descriptive study of clinical cases was carried out, in the period from January 2017 to January 2019, at Saturnino Lora Provincial Hospital in Santiago de Cuba. The universe consisted of the 117 patients who underwent computed tomography of the skull and with a postoperative histological diagnosis of primary neoplasia of the central nervous system (supratentorial) and brain metastases, who underwent transcranial neurosurgery.

Results: The male sex predominated, together with the ages 40-59 years old. Clinically, most of the cases (76.1%) presented headache as a sign of intracranial hypertension. 87.2% presented the tumor in the cerebral hemispheres. Glioblastoma multiforme was the prevalent histological type, accounting for 45.3%. Hypokalemia was the most frequent post-anesthetic complication, accounting for 21.4%.

Conclusions: Supratentorial brain tumors in adulthood constitute a health concern, mainly in men after 45 years of age; headache, seizures and vomiting are the cardinal symptoms. During excision of supratentorial tumors, the patients presented various anesthetic complications.