Surgical opinion on brain and skull base tumours with Dr. Puneet Rana, visiting senior consultant neurosurgeon.
Few sentences frighten people more, and the fear often runs ahead of the facts. Not every brain tumour is cancer. Many are benign, some grow so slowly that watching them is safer than operating, and a good number are entirely curable with surgery.
What matters is what kind of tumour it is, where it sits, and whether it is causing pressure or affecting function. Those questions are answered by looking properly at the scans and at you, not by a phrase in a report.
Dr. Rana trained at NIMHANS, Bengaluru, and handles tumours of the brain, its covering membranes, and the skull base, including endoscopic and microscopic approaches.
Please bring your MRI or CT films, not only the report. The images decide the plan.
Tumours within the brain itself, whether primary or spread from elsewhere.
Tumours of the membranes covering the brain, often benign and slow-growing.
Tumours at the base of the skull, reached by endoscopic or microscopic approaches.
Tumours of the spinal cord, its coverings, and the vertebral column.
Three broad answers are possible, and all three are legitimate. Some tumours should be removed, and removed soon. Some should be watched with repeat scans, because the risk of operating outweighs the risk of leaving them. Some need a biopsy first, so that the treatment fits the actual diagnosis rather than an assumption.
Where surgery is right, the aim is to remove as much as can be removed safely while protecting speech, movement and vision. Where it is not right, you should be told that just as plainly.
If surgery has been advised elsewhere and you want another view before committing, that is sensible, and no reasonable surgeon objects to it. Bring the films and whatever you have been told, and you will get a straight assessment.
A second opinion sometimes confirms the first. Sometimes it changes the plan. Either way you will understand why, which makes the decision yours rather than something that happened to you.
Please note: NeuroMet Wellness is an outpatient clinic. Consultation, review of your scans, and second opinions happen here; if a surgery is advised, it is carried out by Dr. Rana at his hospital, Paras Health, Gurugram.
No. Many brain tumours are benign, and some grow so slowly that they are safest watched rather than removed. The type and location matter far more than the word tumour.
Please bring the films or the CD. The report is one radiologist's reading; the images are what a surgeon needs to judge whether and how to operate.
Sometimes yes, and some are cured by surgery alone. It depends on the type of tumour and where it sits, particularly how close it lies to areas controlling speech, movement or vision.
Entirely reasonable, and common. Bring your scans and the advice you have been given, and you will get an honest assessment of whether that advice is sound.
Consultation and review of scans happen at NeuroMet Wellness. If surgery is advised, it is carried out by Dr. Rana at his hospital, Paras Health, Gurugram.
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