Brain surgery treats tumours, bleeds and malformations inside the skull using techniques such as open craniotomy, keyhole or endoscopic access, awake mapping, or focused radiation like Gamma Knife. The right approach depends on the lesion's size, location and type.
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Tap what the doctor or the MRI report mentioned. We'll show you the route that is usually right for it, how urgent it really is, and what it costs — before you speak to anyone.
Next: what this surgery actually costs
Pick the route below for an instant indicative range. Your exact, itemised figure comes back within 1 hour of a neurosurgeon seeing the scan.
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Indicative ranges only. Final cost depends on tumour size and location, ICU days, implants, whether radiotherapy or chemotherapy follows, and any complication. We send a written itemised estimate before you travel and flag anything that could change it.
Indicative published averages for an uncomplicated supratentorial tumour craniotomy including hospital stay.
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See exactly where the tumour sits — and what it risks
Two identical tumours in different places are two completely different operations. Tap a region to see what it controls, what could be lost, and exactly how surgeons protect it.
Controls
Movement, personality, planning, expressive speech (Broca's area on the left)
What is at risk
Weakness of the opposite arm or leg; difficulty producing words even when comprehension is intact
Most brain problems allow time to think. These five do not — if any of them is happening now, get imaging today and send it to us in parallel.
Treat as a bleed until proven otherwise. Plain CT within the hour, then CT angiogram.
Needs imaging today, not next week — stroke and tumour look identical to the family.
An MRI with contrast is mandatory. A first seizure over 25 is a brain lesion until the scan says otherwise.
Signs of raised pressure inside the skull. Do not wait for a routine appointment.
Emergency CT. An extradural clot can be fatal in hours and is completely curable if operated in time.
Families imagine months in a bed. Drag the timeline to see the honest version, day by day.
Most patients are extubated on the table and are awake in the neuro-ICU within hours. A CT scan confirms the cavity is dry. Sitting up the same evening.
More than 130 different tumours grow in and around the brain, and they behave nothing alike. A meningioma pressing on the surface is usually benign, often curable with one operation, and sometimes safe to simply watch for years. A glioblastoma infiltrates like ink into blotting paper and needs surgery, radiation and chemotherapy together. A pituitary adenoma is reached through the nose in an afternoon. A single brain metastasis from a lung or breast cancer may be best treated with radiosurgery in one session while the systemic drug does the rest of the work. So the first job is never "how do we remove it" — it is naming the tumour precisely: where it sits, what grade it is, and what its molecular markers say. That answer decides whether you need a neurosurgeon, a radiation oncologist, a medical oncologist, all three, or nobody yet.
Three things decide your treatment plan: what the tumour is, what grade it is, and where it sits. Set them below and watch the treatment mix change — this is genuinely how a neuro-oncology tumour board reasons.
Educational only. A real plan needs the actual MRI images, the histopathology and the molecular panel read together by a neurosurgeon and a neuro-oncologist.
In brain tumour surgery the question is never whether it can be removed — it is what comes out with it. Location and size decide that far more than the surgeon's confidence does.
Tap a region — illustrative, not an anatomical atlas.
On this profile a complete or near-complete removal is a reasonable goal, and extent of resection is the survival variable you have most control over. Ask the surgeon for a post-operative MRI within 48 hours and a measured percentage — not an adjective.
Ask a neurosurgeon about my MRIUnder the current WHO classification, markers are part of the diagnosis itself. Two tumours that look identical down a lens can be different diseases with different drugs and different decades. Tap what your report shows.
A silenced DNA-repair gene means the tumour cannot undo the damage temozolomide does to it.
What it changes: Methylated tumours gain substantially more from temozolomide — median survival roughly 22–24 months versus 12–15 in unmethylated GBM. In elderly patients it can decide chemo-alone versus radiation-alone.
Almost nobody gets only one. Modern treatment is a sequence — and knowing what each part does, and what it costs you, is how you take part in the decision instead of receiving it.
Removing as much tumour as can be taken without taking function with it — measured, not estimated, using neuronavigation, intra-operative MRI, 5-ALA fluorescence that makes high-grade tumour glow pink, and cortical stimulation while you are awake and talking. For most tumours the extent of resection is the single strongest modifiable predictor of survival. Deep, small lesions can instead be ablated with a laser fibre through a 3 mm hole.
Set the tumour and the plan below for an instant indicative range. Your exact figure comes back within 1 hour of us seeing the MRI and biopsy report.
Indicative ranges only. Molecular testing depth, ICU days, awake mapping, proton versus photon radiation, the number of radiation sessions and the duration of drug therapy are the real swing factors. We share a written, itemised estimate before you travel and flag anything that could change it.
Most brain tumours are not glioblastoma. Meningiomas, pituitary adenomas and acoustic neuromas are benign and often curable or safely watchable, and they outnumber malignant gliomas. Even within malignant disease, an IDH-mutant, 1p/19q co-deleted tumour can mean well over a decade. Nobody can give you a timeline until the tissue and its molecular markers are known.
Removal is not the hard part — removing the maximum amount without taking function is. That needs neuronavigation, intra-operative monitoring, 5-ALA fluorescence, awake mapping capability and a surgeon who does these operations weekly rather than occasionally. Extent of resection is a survival variable, so the choice of surgeon is a treatment decision, not an administrative one.
Primary brain tumours do not seed through an operation — this fear comes from abdominal cancer surgery and does not transfer. What surgery does is relieve pressure, restore function, provide the tissue that makes molecular diagnosis possible, and reduce the tumour burden the radiation and drugs have to handle.
That reputation belongs to whole-brain radiotherapy, which is now used far more sparingly. Modern focused techniques — stereotactic radiosurgery, IMRT with hippocampal avoidance, proton therapy — treat the target and spare memory structures. Cognitive outcomes today are markedly better than the ones your relatives may remember.
Some drugs cannot; the ones actually used for brain tumours were chosen precisely because they can. Temozolomide crosses freely, high-dose methotrexate is designed for it, and the newer targeted tablets like osimertinib, tucatinib and vorasidenib were developed with intracranial penetration as a headline requirement.
Not yet, and it is important to say so. Checkpoint inhibitors have failed to improve survival in unselected glioblastoma trials, though they work genuinely well for melanoma and lung brain metastases and in rare hypermutated gliomas. Vaccines and CAR-T remain investigational. We will tell you which trials are real and which clinics are selling hope.
Drag through the timeline. Brain surgery recovery surprises most families in a good way — it is the weeks of radiation and the fatigue afterwards that need planning for.
Most patients are woken in theatre and assessed immediately, then observed overnight in a neuro ICU. A headache and a swollen eyelid on the operated side are normal. Steroids control brain swelling for the first days.
From the first WhatsApp message to the one-year surveillance scan.
Upload the images (DICOM, CD or even clear phone photos of the films), the radiology report, and a short note on symptoms — headache, seizures, weakness, vision or hormone problems.
A senior neurosurgeon reads the scan personally and tells you the likely diagnosis, whether it needs surgery, radiosurgery, medicine or only surveillance, and how urgent it truly is.
Complex gliomas, skull-base tumours and metastases are discussed with a neuro-radiologist, radiation oncologist and medical oncologist before anyone recommends an operation.
Itemised all-inclusive estimate plus a hospital invitation letter for the medical visa, usually issued in 2–4 hours, covering patient and attendants together.
Airport pickup, admission, navigation MRI with tractography, fMRI if speech areas are involved, anaesthesia and cardiac clearance — usually all inside 48 hours.
Navigation-guided microsurgery, awake mapping or endoscopic route as planned. The family gets updates from theatre and a photo of the post-operative scan the same day.
One to two nights of close neurological monitoring, then the ward. Physiotherapy and speech therapy begin as early as day two if needed.
Full report with IDH, MGMT and 1p/19q markers where relevant, and an honest conversation about whether radiotherapy or chemotherapy adds anything for your case.
Flying clearance after the post-op MRI, a printed medicine chart, and teleconsults with the same surgeon for every surveillance scan afterwards — in your language.
These are typical figures from high-volume partner centres doing 800+ neurosurgical procedures a year. Brain surgery outcomes depend far more on the diagnosis and location than on the hospital brochure — we will tell you where your case sits, including when the honest answer is that surgery will not help.
Brain fatigue peaks around weeks 2–4 and can last three months. It is not a relapse. We give the family a written expectation chart so nobody panics.
Usually continued 3–6 months after a supratentorial operation, then tapered by plan — never stopped suddenly. Driving rules differ by country and we spell yours out.
Dexamethasone controls swelling but causes sugar spikes, sleeplessness and stomach irritation. You go home with a day-by-day taper chart, not a vague instruction.
Physiotherapy, speech and occupational therapy start in hospital. Two weeks of intensive rehab before flying home makes a visible difference in the first month.
No forms, no payment, no obligation. A senior neurosurgeon looks at the actual images — not just the report — and tells you what it is, whether it needs an operation, and what it costs.
We reply on WhatsApp within 4 hours. Your scans are never shared with anyone else.
Brain cases are rarely leisurely. We move the paperwork in parallel with the medical planning so nothing waits on a document, and we prioritise emergencies.
"Two hospitals said the tumour could not be removed without paralysing his right side. They did it awake — he was counting out loud during the surgery and walked out on day six."
"The MRI report came back in three hours with a clear answer: no surgery, Gamma Knife. One session, home in three days, hearing intact."
"Pituitary tumour taken out through the nose. No scar, no shaved head, and my vision came back within two weeks. The final bill matched the estimate exactly."
Very little of modern neurosurgery looks like the operation families imagine. Most tumours are removed through an opening smaller than a matchbox, guided by a navigation system that tracks the instruments on your own MRI to within two millimetres. Fibre tracts carrying movement and speech are mapped before the incision with DTI tractography, and watched live during surgery with nerve monitoring — in some cases while the patient is awake and talking. Pituitary tumours come out through the nostril with no head incision at all. Some lesions are never cut: a single Gamma Knife session treats them with focused radiation and the patient flies home in three days. The first job is not surgery. It is reading the scan properly and telling you which of these you actually need.
Still not sure what brain surgery actually involves? Read on
No forms, no payment, no obligation. A senior neurosurgeon looks at the actual images — not just the report — and tells you what it is, whether it needs an operation, and what it costs.
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