Efficacy and Safety of Carmustine Wafer Implantation After Ventricular Opening in Glioblastomas, Isocitrate Dehydrogenase-Wildtype, in Adults

Neurosurgery 94:1227–1236, 2024

We assessed the impact of ventricular opening on postoperative complications and survival of carmustine wafer implantation during surgery of newly diagnosed supratentorial glioblastomas, isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH)-wildtype in adults.

METHODS: We performed an observational, retrospective, single-center cohort study at a tertiary surgical neurooncological center between January 2006 and December 2021.

RESULTS: One hundred ninety-four patients who benefited from a first-line surgical resection with carmustine wafer implantation were included. Seventy patients (36.1%) had a ventricular opening. We showed that ventricular opening (1) did not increase overall postoperative complication rates (P = .201); (2) did not worsen the early postoperative Karnofsky Performance Status score (P = .068); (3) did not increase the time interval from surgery to adjuvant oncological treatment (P = .458); (4) did not affect the completion of the standard radiochemotherapy protocol (P = .164); (5) did not affect progression-free survival (P = .059); and (6) did not affect overall survival (P = .142).

CONCLUSION: In this study, ventricular opening during first-line surgical resection did not affect the survival and postoperative complications after use of carmustine wafer implantation in adult patients with a newly diagnosed supratentorial glioblastoma, IDH-wildtype. This warrants a prospective and multicentric study to clearly assess the impact of the ventricular opening after carmustine wafer implantation in glioblastoma, IDH-wildtype.

The Survival Advantage of “Supratotal” Resection of Glioblastoma Using Selective Cortical Mapping and the Subpial Technique

Neurosurgery 81:275–288, 2017

A substantial body of evidence suggests that cytoreductive surgery is a prerequisite to prolonging survival in patients with glioblastoma (GBM).

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the safety and impact of “supratotal” resections beyond the zone of enhancement seen on magnetic resonance imaging scans, using a subpial technique.

METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated 86 consecutive patients with primary GBM, managed by the senior author, using a subpial resection technique with or without carmustine (BCNU) wafer implantation. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression was used to analyze clinical, radiological, and outcome variables. Overall impacts of extent of resection (EOR) and BCNUwafer placementwere compared using Kaplan-Meier survival analysis.

RESULTS: Mean patient age was 56 years. The median OS for the group was 18.1 months. Median OS for patients undergoing gross total, near-total, and subtotal resection were 54, 16.5, and 13.2 months, respectively. Patients undergoing near-total resection (P = .05) or gross total resection (P<.01) experienced statistically significant longer survival time than patients undergoing subtotal resection as well as patients undergoing≥95% EOR (P<.01) when compared to <95% EOR. The addition of BCNU wafers had no survival advantage.

CONCLUSIONS: The subpial technique extends the resection beyond the contrast enhancement and is associated with an overall survival beyond that seen in similar series where resection of the enhancement portion is performed. The effect of supratotal resection on survival exceeded the effects of age, Karnofsky performance score, and tumor volume. A prospective study would help to quantify the impact of the subpial technique on quality of life and survival as compared to a traditional resection limited to the enhancing tumor.