General Anesthesia Versus Local Anesthesia in Stereotactic Biopsies of Brain Lesions: A Prospective Randomized Study

The willingness of patients to undergo randomization in this setting was low (13.3%). Within this highly selective group of patients, there was no significant difference for stress levels in patients who underwent stereotactic biopsy under local anesthesia versus general anesthesia. However, median values indicate a trend for higher stress-level values for patients undergoing local anesthesia.