Long-term outcome and quality of life after Cavernoma resection: Eloquent vs. Non-Eloquent areas

Abstract Objective: To analyze the long-term quality of life after surgery of cavernoma.Methods: A monocentric retrospective study was conducted on 69 patients with cavernoma treated microsurgically between 2000 and 2016. The eloquence was adopted from Spetzler-Martin definition. A most recent follow-up was elicited between 2017 and 2019, in which the quality of life (QoL) was evaluated with the Short Form-12 questionnaire (SF12).Results: 41 lesions were in eloquent group (EG), 22 in non-eloquent group (NEG), 3 in orbit and 3 in the spinal cord. Postoperative worsening of the modified Rankin scale (mRS) occurred in 19.5% of cases in EG versus 4.5% in NEG. After a mean follow-up of 6.5 years, the neurological status was better or unchanged compared to baseline in 85.4% of EG and 100% of NEG. 44 patients (EG n =27, NEG n = 14) attended the last follow-up. The EG had mostly comparable QoL results matched to NEG except for the physical role (RP). The study population when compared to the norms, did well on only half of the parameters of SF12. Yet, the general health (GH), vitality, physical (RP) and emotional roles (RE) were significantly inferior.Conclusion: At a late follow-up, the surgical morbidity was transient in the NEG and mostly recovered in the EG. Regarding QoL, Patients after eloquent cavernoma resection reported a non-inferior QoL in most SF12 domains (except for physical role) compared to NEG. However, they reported general health perception inferior to norms, which was affected by the limited physical and emotional roles.