[Plastic repair of a defect in the base of the skull with soft tissues from the orbit after the removal of an extensive esthesioneuroepithelioma].

The paper describes a clinical observation of closure of sphenoidal sinus defect and plastic repair of dura mater by using orbital tissues after removal of a tumor from the medial portions of the middle cranial fossa, which spread into the orbit and sphenoidal sinus, in complete irreversible loss of visual function, ophthalmoplegia and ptosis in a patient with skull soft tissue hypotrophy due to multiple operations and radiation therapy and hence unsuitable for displacement and closure. This observation shows it possible to use orbital soft tissue for repair of the base of the skull, in cases when integumentary cranial tissues are impossible to use as a plastic material due to their hypotrophicity. At the same time severe dysfunctions, such as blindness and ophthalmoplegia enable orbital tissues to be employed without significantly deteriorating any functional and cosmetic effect.