Journal Reviews
Which factors affect the postoperative CSF leak following endoscopic skull base surgery?
Endoscopic skull base surgery is being increasingly performed worldwide for skull base tumours. Common indications include pituitary tumours, rathke cleft cysts, chordomas, craniopharyngiomas and olfactory neuroblastomas. The most common and important complication following endoscopic skull base surgery is postoperative CSF...
Single surgery for repair of tegmen defects and superior semicircular canal dehiscence
This retrospective review of 34 patients undergoing repair of the temporal bone defect via the middle cranial fossa approach provides the author’s management strategy for two problems: superior semicircular canal dehiscence and tegmen defects. The incidence of both these pathologies...
Balloons – more complicated than first thought?
This study describes the complications seen after balloon sinuplasty (BSP) - a commonly performed procedure (particularly in the USA where it is often performed as an office procedure) versus traditional functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS). The data source was a...
Managing spontaneous CSF leaks secondary to benign intracranial hypertension
Spontaneous CSF leaks are a rare entity. In this paper, a Spanish group report their experience managing the condition using endoscopic surgery in 35 patients over an eight year period. Leak locations included the cribriform plate (18/35), ethmoid roof (15/35)...
Transnasal endoscopic repair of CSF leaks
This Italian study was a retrospective review of 110 consecutive patients who underwent repair of their CSF leak via the transnasal endoscopic approach from 2003 to 2013. All surgery was performed by the same primary surgeon and patients with a...
A new hydrogel dural sealant for CSF repair
This paper reports the findings of a multicentre prospective randomised trial conducted to demonstrate the efficacy of the Adherus Dural Sealant for FDA approval. The Adherus Dural Sealant was compared with the control, DuraSeal Dural Sealant. It was applied to...
Outpatient closure of CSF leaks: a good idea or a step too far?
After day-case septoplasty, day case thyroidectomy, now day case CSF leak repair – has the pendulum moved too far? The authors put forward a convincing case for what, only 10 years ago, would have sounded like a provocation. They quote...