Functional Outcome after Language Mapping for Glioma Resection

Language sites in the cortex of the brain vary among patients. Language mapping while the patient is awake is an intraoperative technique designed to minimize language deficits associated with brain-tumor resection.

To study language function after brain-tumor resection with language mapping, we examined 250 consecutive patients with gliomas. Positive language sites (i.e., language regions in the cortex of the brain, 1 cm by 1 cm, which were temporarily inactivated by means of a bipolar electrode) were identified and categorized into cortical language maps. The tumors were resected up to 1 cm from the cortical areas where intraoperative stimulation produced a disturbance in language. Our resection strategy did not require identification of the stimulation-induced language sites within the field of exposure.