Research has barely scratched the surface for Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS).
When a patient’s brain tumor is not in certain regions, a method that maps their language centers before surgery works well. The discovery, which was made by Nagoya University researchers and was published in the journal Scientific Reports, clarifies knowledge of the test’s efficacy and may aid in better surgical planning.
Common brain tumors called gliomas must be completely removed for the patient’s survival. Surgery attempts to remove the tumors while preserving the areas that are essential for motor and linguistic capabilities because they frequently develop in those areas. Although the language center of the brain is often on the left side, there might be individual variations.
Since the brain does not have pain receptors, surgeons currently strive to protect the language regions by keeping the patient awake during surgery and using direct cortical stimulation to various sites on the brain while the patient names what they see in an image. The patient is unable to name the image when a language-related area is stimulated. Although this technique is incredibly accurate at mapping the language regions of the brain, surgeons are still searching for techniques that are just as precise but may be performed prior to surgery. This would aid in surgical planning and raise the likelihood that the treatment will succeed.
Read here to find out how surgeons are now using TMS mapping to protect language centers during brain tumor removal.
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