Background: Frontal sinus exposure is a common consequence of frontal craniotomy. Cerebrospinal fluid leakage and infection are the major postoperative complications that may occur as a result of the open frontal sinus. The successful filling of the open frontal sinus provides an approach to prevent significant complications caused by frontal sinus exposure.
Objective: This article describes a new technique to reconstruct the exposed frontal sinus cavity with the combined application of gelatin sponge and a vascularized pericranial flap.
Methods: A total of 140 patients underwent frontal sinus reconstruction using gelfoam and vascularized pericranial flaps from 2016 to 2021. Gelatin sponge was used to fill the frontal sinus, and a vascularized pericranial flap was used to cover the frontal sinus when the bone flap was retracted.
Results: Postoperative cerebrospinal fluid leakage and infection did not occur in any patient.
Conclusion: Our results validated the effectiveness of our technique in the prevention of exposed frontal sinus-related postoperative complications.
Keywords: cerebrospinal fluid leak; frontal sinus; gelfoam; reconstruction; vascularized pericranial flap.
© 2022 Guo, Fu, Yin, Jiang, Kuang, Wu, Cao, Tan and Jiang.