Brain Surgery In Children - Know Its Do's and Don'ts!

There are a number of reasons why brain surgery is performed on a child with a tumour in the brain. Apart from removing as much of the tumour as can be safely done, it is sometimes done to extract a small portion of the tumour in order to conduct a biopsy. Occasionally, brain surgery may be performed on a child to put chemotherapy drugs directly into the brain or even to reduce the associated symptoms of the condition, such as headaches caused by the accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid.

After brain surgery, the child s head and face will swell up and become painful. There will probably also be swelling in one or both eyes which will be difficult for the child to open and control. Other after effects of brain surgery includes headaches, dizziness, problems pertaining to speech and coordination, sore throat etc.

It takes roughly 4-6 months to fully recover from brain surgery. During this time, the child needs to avoid playing contact sports such as football and kabaddi, or even get involved in bouts of playful wrestling in order to avoid causing any damage to the brain or the skull. It is only after recovering completely that the child can go back to playing any sort of contact sport.

Although done very rarely, a child might be allowed to wake up in the middle of the surgery. This is done to locate and check the part of the brain that controls language and movement. However, this is done only if the child is at least 12 years old. It is too dangerous to be performed on pre-adolescent children.