A Questionnaire-based Survey of Clinical Neuro-oncological Practice in India

Background: Neuro-oncology is a relatively young subspecialty of neurosurgery. 2018 was the 10th year since the founding of the Indian Society of Neuro-oncology. Objective: To assess patterns in neuro-oncology practice in India. Methods: This was an online survey covering various domains of neuro-oncology such as demographics and practice setting, protocols for the medical management of patients with brain tumors, protocols for surgery and the perioperative period (including antibiotic prophylaxis, dural closure techniques, etc.), technological adjuncts used for brain/spine tumors (including intraoperative neurologic monitoring-IONM), and management protocols for certain specific clinical scenarios. Results: The response rate was 13%. Although 37% of the respondents' institutions could be considered as having reasonable surgical volumes (>1 procedure/day), only about half of these had high volumes of malignant brain tumor surgery. A wide variation was seen in medical management, perioperative protocols, use of adjuncts and intraoperative technologies, and paradigms for specific clinical scenarios. Conclusions: There is a need to standardize the protocols in neuro-oncology. This could be achieved by strengthening the formal training process in surgical neuro-oncology.