Causes

• Herniated glioblastoma is the most common side effect of a brain tumor. It can be caused by the intracranial pressure brought on by surgery to remove the tumor. It is caused when brain tissue, cerebrospinal fluid, and blood vessels are moved or pressed away from their usual position in the head.
  
  

Location

• The brain herniation occurs between areas inside the skull that are separated by the tentorium, through the opening at the base of the skull called the foramen magnum and through openings created during brain surgery.
  
  

Symptoms

• The symptoms of herniated glioblastoma include progressive loss of consciousness, irregular breathing or pulse, respiratory arrest or cardiac arrest and coma. The loss of all brainstem reflexes such as blinking, swallowing, gagging or pupils reacting to light is also a sign of herniation.
  
  

Treatment

• A herniated glioblastoma can cause death whether treated or not, but doctors perform emergency surgery to relieve the pressure within the skull.
  They place a drain in the brain to remove the fluid, corticosteroids are administered and medications such as diuretics are administered to reduce fluids inside the skull. They also employ an airway tube to increase the breathing rate to reduce the levels of carbon dioxide in the blood and remove blood if bleeding is causing the herniation.
  
  

Prognosis

• Glioblastoma herniation can cause death, but if it does not, it can also cause a massive stroke. The outlook of a herniation depends on where it occurs, but is can cause damage to the areas of the brain that control blood flow and breathing. This can lead to brain death, if not physical death.