Anesthetic Management for Awake Craniotomy

Performing craniotomy on patients while they are “awake” requires a very specific anesthesia management. It is the anesthetist’s responsibility to apply sedation and analgesia when necessary to ensure optimal comfort of the patient during the surgery, and to continue electrophysiological monitoring and patient cooperation. In addition to specific anesthesia management, good teamwork, where communication is very important, is an absolute necessity for the awake craniotomy procedure. The aim of this review is to discuss in detail the different anesthesia techniques that can be applied during awake craniotomy and the intraoperative complications that may develop. Keywords: Awake craniotomy, anesthetic management, complications