Language errors in patients undergoing awake craniotomy
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Does tumour location predict language error types on pre- and intra-operative neuropsychology for awake craniotomy?
IRAS ID
306168
Contact name
Jennifer Saxon
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Staffordshire University
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 8 months, 31 days
Research summary
Awake craniotomy is a surgical treatment for brain tumour, where the patient is awakened during surgery and completes language testing while areas of the brain are stimulated. This is used to map language function during surgery, minimising damage to language relevant areas. Errors can also occur for different reasons however, such as fatigue or effects of anaesthesia, which could lead to brain areas being avoided unnecessarily. This study aims to address whether patients with brain tumours in different locations make different types of errors on cognitive tests. By understanding if particular errors are more likely for patients with particular tumours, it may be possible to identify during surgery which errors are likely relevant to language function and thus improve language mapping, maximising the amount of tumour removed. We would also like to understand more about the experience of hearing errors reported during surgery.
The study will involve two stages, primarily comprising analysis of data previously collected from patients before and during surgery. The first phase will involve examining scores from pre-operative cognitive testing. This includes 3 verbal fluency tasks: producing as many words as possible either starting with a particular letter, within a particular category or switching between 2 categories, to see whether patients with tumours classed as frontal or temporal perform differently.
Ten participants will also be included in the second phase, a case series involving detailed description of each case in relation to each other and to existing literature. This will include examination of the types of errors made on a naming task during surgery, information about demographic factors that could affect scores, and detailed tumour location based on neuroradiological interpretation of structural imaging. This phase will also include a short telephone interview about experiences of intra-operative language testing, to be reported as part of the case description.
REC name
West Midlands - Black Country Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/WM/0235
Date of REC Opinion
21 Nov 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion