Dr. Alfredo Quiñones Hinojosa

Think about this then.

A hundred years ago, it was almost a 100 percent mortality with brain surgery.

Yeah.

So we have come a long, long way.

Yes, remember they used to.

So I think the chances of success are very high.

Now, having said that, there's still a percentage, five to 10%, that you may have an issue, that you may have a deficit.

whether it's motor function, inability to move the hand, leg, face, or some sort of a speech deficit.

And at one point, you don't know exactly if he was done by the surgery or exacerbated by the surgery, or was it just the fact that

that the air hit the brain and you mobilize things or the disease is moving so rapidly that it's affecting other parts of the brain.

But nonetheless, luckily, the chances of success are so, so high.

Now, every now and then you will have a patient where you look at the scans and you realize no matter what I do,

to this patient, all I am going to do is do a brain surgery and they're going to spend the last few months of their life in and out of the hospital.

So I want to do what is best for this patient and their family.

And sometimes what is best is not to do anything.

What do tumors look like?

You know, in the MRI, tumors look most of the time like a light bulb.

And people say, oh, there is the tumor.

It should be no problem taking it out.

Once you walk into the operating room, many times there is no clear distinction between what is tumor and what is normal, and most especially at the edges of the tumor.