Middle Turbinate Friendly Technique for Cribriform Cerebrospinal Fluid Leak Repair.

Objective: To compare surgical outcomes between 2 techniques for cribriform cerebrospinal fluid leak (CSF) repair with middle turbinate preservation (MTP) vs middle turbinate resection (MTR). A secondary outcome is to examine the effectiveness of collagen dura matrix (CDM) as a grafting material for repair of isolated cribriform skull base defects.

Study Design: A retrospective chart review was performed of consecutive patients who underwent cribriform CSF repair at Emory University over the past 15 years.

Setting: Tertiary care rhinology practice.

Subjects: Adult patients with cribriform defects limited to the cribriform plate that did not extend lateral to the middle turbinate (MT) and were reconstructed with a free graft (mucosal or synthetic).

Methods: Patients were stratified into 2 primary groups by surgical technique: MTP vs MTR. A subset of patients underwent repair with CDM alone and was analyzed separately for CSF repair failure rate.

Results: Of 68 patients identified with cribriform defects, 42 underwent repair with MTP and 26 underwent repair with MTR. Average follow-up time was 495 days. Patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension were also equally distributed ( = .20). Primary CSF leak repair success was 95.6%, with 100% of leaks ultimately repaired. A subset of 39 patients underwent repair with CDM alone, with a primary repair success rate of 94.9%.

Conclusions: We present an effective method for repair of cribriform CSF leaks while preserving the MT. CDM can be successfully used as a free graft alone for repair of isolated cribriform CSF leaks.