Author Topic: Number of hours for surgery  (Read 13977 times)

littlejep

  • New Member
  • *
  • Posts: 7
Re: Number of hours for surgery
« Reply #15 on: April 15, 2007, 08:47:43 am »
My tumor was the size of a thumbnail (considered medium sized by the surgeons). I was in surgery from 8AM to 3:30 PM. A surgical nurse kept my family informed every hour and a half. As others have said, it varies from patient to patient, type and extent of the tumor and what nerves may be involved. I knew going in to the surgery that it was going to be long. I came out well, and am doing quite well with very little side-effects, like headaches, numbness around the incision area and affected taste.

Frank

Boppie

  • Guest
Re: Number of hours for surgery
« Reply #16 on: April 15, 2007, 04:40:16 pm »
My 2 cm tumor took about 9 hours.  It was very stuck to the facial nerve .  So that part was long and tedious for the doctor.  The surgical nurse explained it takes about 2 hours just to get the bone opened to the tumor site! 

That's why they call us hard heads ;D

Every tumor is different.  The time span will seem like 5 minutes to your brain.  Your family needs to know not to panic.  The doctors will take all the time they need to do the best job. 

Shrnwldr

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 106
Re: Number of hours for surgery
« Reply #17 on: April 16, 2007, 07:08:02 am »
My doctors have told me 3-4 hours.  I will let you know the exact length of time.  My daughter is predicting 6-8 hours.  Any takers? LOL
2cm x1cm, right side
Surgery: Trans-lab approach
Dr. Jerald V. Robinson, Dr. William Hitselberger, Dr. Michael Stefan.
Hopsital: St Vincent's Hospital, Los Angeles, CA
Date of Surgery: May 18, 2007

ixta

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 207
  • grade 4 left AN
    • Killkuato Acoustic Dx and Tx
Re: Number of hours for surgery
« Reply #18 on: April 17, 2007, 09:51:55 pm »
I was told 6, turned out to be 7. Endoscopic.

You won't even remember closing or opening your eyes though.
5cm left AN from IAC to cerebellum/brainstem.
Zapped out by Shahinian @ SBI over the course of 6.5 hrs on Monday 11/27 2006.
thestatus.com   h   biologyfly06

chopper

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 70
Re: Number of hours for surgery
« Reply #19 on: April 18, 2007, 01:47:37 pm »
Mine was like 6-6 1/2 hours, about what was predicted, endoscopic.

Heh, I remember waking up, being told to wiggle my toes, looking around and wondering what the hell had happened to me.  My presurgery flight was awesome though (whatever it was they shot it me to help "relax" me that is)
3+cm AN, hit the chopping block 5 Sep 06 at the Skull Base Institute

Was 4.5cm at it's largest point, completely removed.  All motor functions normal.  Only complaint is SSD on the left side, which was expected anyway.

jimmy r

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 62
Re: Number of hours for surgery
« Reply #20 on: April 30, 2007, 01:16:05 pm »
I have been told 4 to 6 hours at HEI for a translab approach and 8 to 12 hours with Mekena/Barker for retro approach. My first surgery was 4 hours with translab.. My question is are there increased risks for longer surgeries? Is this an advantage of the translab approach? This was my belief 20 years ago when I chose the translab approach, but now I am told not to worry about the longer retro surgery. Both groups think that their approach is the best.
Translab HEI 1987. Retro-sigmoid Mass General 6/19/2007. 7 hour surgery by Barker and Mekena. No nerve damage. Not all the tumor removed.