Clinical significance of bone reconstruction at cranial base for traumatic comminuted fractures of anterior skull base

Abstract

Objective To study the clinical significance of bone reconstruction at cranial base for severe traumatic comminuted fractures of anterior skull base. Methods Forty-six bone defect cases were divided into treatment group and control group randomly. Treatment group was treated with the bone reconstruction therapy, while the control group was not. All the patients received the follow-up ranging 6 months to 1 year, and examined with CT and/or MRI to observe leakage of cerebrospinal fluid,intracranial infection and encephalomeningocele. Results In the treatment group, one of the 18 survivals developed mild cerebrospinal fluid leakage, which was cured later. In the control group, 5 of the 17 survivals had cerebrospinal fluid leakage, 3 had intracranial infection and 3 encephalomeningocele.The total incidence of complications of the treatment and control groups was 1/18 and 5/17, respectively,and the former was significantly lower than the latter (P＜0.05). Conclusions Bone reconstruction can avoid intracranial infection, cerebrospinal fluid leakage and encephalomeningocele during the operation for traumatic comminuted fractures of anterior skull base. Key words: Rraumatic fractures of anterior skull base; Reconstruction; Cerebrospinal fluid leakage; Encephalomeningocele