Research Progress of Rigid Skull Base Reconstruction after Transnasal Endoscopy

Abstract

With the rapid development of diagnosis and treatment technology, equipment and instruments in the new era of neurosurgery, [1, 2] endoscope-assisted transnasal skull base surgery technology is becoming increasingly mature, surgical indications show an expanding trend, and the types of treated lesions are increasing day by day under the advantages of less trauma, quick recovery, high total resection rate and clear visual field exposure [3-5]. However, cerebrospinal fluid leakage and severe intracranial infection caused by the defect of skull base bone and dura mater have a great adverse impact on the prognosis of patients. Therefore, how to carry out long-lasting and effective skull base reconstruction after successful tumor resection is particularly important to reduce the occurrence of cerebrospinal fluid leakage after operation. Currently, there is no uniform standard for skull base reconstruction methods, which can be roughly divided into soft reconstruction and rigid reconstruction [6, 7]. There is no doubt about the importance of soft reconstruction in tissue water sealing, but rigid reconstruction of skull base is often ignored or even controversial [6]. In this paper, various techniques of skull base rigid reconstruction are reviewed, and the necessity of skull base rigid reconstruction is expounded.