Abstract: Background The European Low-Grade Glioma network indicated
a need to better understand common practices regarding
the managing of diffuse low-grade gliomas. This area has
experienced great advances in recent years.
Method A general survey on the managing of diffuse lowgrade
gliomas was answered by 21 centres in 11 European
countries. Here we focused on specific questions regarding
perioperative and intraoperative cognitive assessments.
Results More centres referred to the same speech and language
therapist and/or neuropsychologist across all assessments;
a core of assessment tools was routinely used across
centres; fluency tasks were commonly used in the perioperative
stages, and object naming during surgery; tasks that
tapped on attention, executive functions, visuospatial awareness,
calculation and emotions were sparsely administered;
preoperative assessments were performed 1 month or 1 week
before surgery; timing for postoperative assessments varied;
finally, more centres recommended early rehabilitation, whenever
needed.
Conclusions There is an emerging trend towards following
similar practices for the management of low-grade gliomas
in Europe. Our results are descriptive and formalise current
discussions in our group. Also, they contribute towards the
development of a European assessment protocol.
