Reconstruction of a skull base defect after endoscopic endonasal resection of a pituitary adenoma: Sphenoid mucosal flaps.

Overview

This report describes a bilateral sphenoid sinus mucosal flap for the repair of a sellar floor defect and CSF leak following endoscopic endonasal skull base surgery. The key advantage of this technique is enabling the sphenoid mucosal flaps to remain vascularized, which reduces postoperative complications including CSF leakage, recurrent sinusitis, meningitis, encephalitis and pneumocephalus. The use of this technique is a viable and possibly favorable alternative to free grafts in the reconstruction of small to medium sized sellar defects with low flow or absent CSF leaks base surgery.