Intraoperative brain mapping (awake brain surgery) is a procedure performed during brain tumor surgery while the patient is awake but sedated.

It enables the neurosurgeons to remove tumors that would otherwise be inoperable because:

• They are too close to areas of the brain that control vision, language and body movements
• Surgery would result in a significant loss of function.

Neurosurgeons perform awake brain surgery for tumors that have spread throughout the brain and do not have clear borders, such as some types of glioma. Awake brain surgery can shrink these tumors.