Intracranial repair of posttraumatic cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea associated with recurrent meningitis.

OBJECTIVE

The purposes of this study are to assess the efficacy of our intracranial surgery and evaluate the association between failure after first surgical repair and the risk factors that have been applied on a group of 13 patients affected by posttraumatic cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea associated with recurrent meningitis.

METHODS

We retrospectively collected data on 13 patients referred to our institution. All patients had history of head trauma and experienced 2 or more episodes of meningitis.

RESULTS

Three of the 13 patients had craniectomy defect due to previous trauma and surgery, 9 patients had linear fracture, and 1 patient had no apparent fracture line on preoperative radiologic evaluation. Ten of the 13 patients had identified frontal bone fracture involving the frontal sinus during surgery. Dural tear was identified intradurally and was repaired using a fascia lata graft with or without fibrin glue. Fibrin glue was applied over the suture in 7 patients. Three of the 13 patients had large dural defects.

CONCLUSIONS

The size of bone and dural defect seems to be an important prognostic factor of episodes of meningitis. The use of fibrin glue to fixate fascia lata graft did not benefit the outcome.