How come even after the tumour has been removed a person can still have a completely different personality from before, and also have physical issues that they didn’t have before (such as diabetes)?
In: Biology
The brain is a super complicated web of connections and I’ll be simplifying things and using an imperfect analogy to explain what’s going on.
Imagine the brain and it’s connections as an incredibly complicated 3D spider web. Now a tumor is like a bug that lands on and in the spiderweb and then continues to grow. This will push some strands around slowly so there will be some changes and issues that get worse and worse as the bug gets bigger but usually nothing extreme at least right away. Now removing the tumor is ripping out that bug from the complex 3D spider web. There’s going to be damages and broken connections that various bodily processes depend on.
However if they left the bug in the web alone it would continue to grow and grow until it manages to destroy the entire web. The location and size of the bug will have major bearing on the collateral damage to the rest of the web.
Basically the tumor (and liquid it might generate) pushes on parts of the rest of the brain which damages it and makes it behavior different. In addition during surgery additional damage can occur.
To answer your second question your brain contains the pituitary gland which is important for a lot of hormones such as oxytocin, growth hormone, thyroid hormone etc. one of the hormones is called ADH and briefly it helps with water equilibrium in your body. If it’s out of wack you can develop diabetes insipidus which is when you constantly pee too much even if you try to keep up drinking. Brain surgery is one of those things that could cause this if part of the gland is nicked or removed entirely. Hormones are quite complex and interact in a lot of different ways but that’s the short of it. Hope that helps.
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