Preoperative Lumbar Drainage Placement for Surgical Cranioplasty ⇑ Henrik Giese , Jennifer Meyer, Andreas Unterberg, Christopher Beynon
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Journal of Clinical Neuroscience xxx (2018) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Clinical Neuroscience journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jocn Tools and techniques Preoperative lumbar drainage placement for surgical cranioplasty ⇑ Henrik Giese , Jennifer Meyer, Andreas Unterberg, Christopher Beynon Department of Neurosurgery, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 400, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany article info abstract Article history: Objective: Intraoperative reduction of cerebrospinal fluid may be required in patients undergoing cranio- Received 19 December 2017 plasty (CP) surgery, especially in the presence of bulging cranial defects. Direct cannulation of the frontal Accepted 12 March 2018 horn of the lateral ventricle is associated with risks such as intracerebral haemorrhage or postoperative Available online xxxx leakage of cerebrospinal fluid. Here we report our initial experiences with preoperative lumbar drain (LD) placement for cranioplasty surgery in patients with bulging cranial defects. Keywords: Method: The medical records of patients who were treated with LD prior to CP surgery at our institution Cranioplasty were retrospectively analysed. Pre-, intra- and postoperative modalities, complications and outcome Decompressive craniectomy parameters are described. Lumbar drain Cerebrospinal fluid drainage Results: A total of 14 patients (mean age 46 years) were included in this analysis. The majority of patients had received decompressive craniectomy due to space-occupying cerebral infarction (64.3%) and trau- matic brain injury (14.3%). CP was performed unilaterally with autologous bone graft in 93% of cases. No complications occurred during lumbar drainage placement and the grafts were implanted without the need of dural opening and ventricle puncture. LDs were maintained for an average of 17 ± 15 h (range, 1–48 h). There were no LD related complications in the further course. Conclusion: Our initial experiences demonstrate that preoperative LD placement facilitates CP in patients with bulging cranial defects requiring surgical cranioplasty. Intraoperative puncture of ventricles for reducing cerebrospinal fluid is avoided and therefore, the risk of intracerebral haemorrhage and brain damage is reduced. Further studies are needed to evaluate the advantages of this technique as an alter- native to conventional methods of intraoperative CSF reduction. Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction However, bulging defects may also occur without edema or HC. In these cases, the CP procedure can be difficult because the cran- Decompressive craniectomy (DC) is an effective option to ioplasty cannot be adapted into the desired position. Temporary decrease life-threatening intracranial hypertension in traumatic CSF reduction may be necessary and this can be achieved through brain injury (TBI) and patients with haemorrhagic or ischemic various methods. Usually, the frontal horn of the lateral ventricle is stroke [1–4]. CP surgery with reinsertion of the autologous bone cannulated intraoperatively through insertion of an external ven- flap or implantation of alloplastic grafts is usually required in the tricular drainage (EVD) or a Cushing cannula. However, this proce- further course of respective patients. The surgical procedure is dure is associated with the risk of misplacement or intracerebral associated with high rates of complications such as wound healing haemorrhage (ICH) with subsequent postoperative neurological disorders, infections or osteolysis of the autologous bone [5,6]. This deterioration [7–10]. EVD-associated haemorrhagic complications especially applies to patients with bulging cranial defects, as punc- occur in 7.0% of cases (95% confidence interval: 4.5%–9.4%) [7,8]. ture of the ventricles to decrease the volume of intracranial cere- The use of preoperative lumbar drainage (LD) has been reported brospinal fluid for graft implantation may be necessary. for the prevention of spinal cord ischemia in patients undergoing Herniation of the cranial defect can have various reasons. thoracic endovascular aortic repair [11]. Furthermore, LD’s are fre- Cerebral edema may be present in the acute phase after TBI or quently used in scull base surgery to prevent or treat postoperative stroke. Hydrocephalus (HC) may also lead to a bulging cranial CSF fistulas, especially for extended endoscopic endonasal defect which may require implantation of a CSF shunt system. approaches with large dura defects [12,13]. The technique of LD placement is similar to that of epidural anaesthesia which is rou- tinely used, e.g. for caesarean section [14]. Therefore, the place- ⇑ Corresponding author. ment of the LD can also be performed by anaesthesiologists. To E-mail address: [email protected] (H. Giese). the best of our knowledge, its use for reduction of CSF prior to https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocn.2018.03.008 0967-5868/Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Please cite this article in press as: Giese H et al. Preoperative lumbar drainage placement for surgical cranioplasty. J Clin Neurosci (2018), https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jocn.2018.03.008 2 H. Giese et al. / Journal of Clinical Neuroscience xxx (2018) xxx–xxx surgical CP has not yet been reported in the literature. The risk of During the study period, the use of LD placements was not sub- peri-procedural intracerebral haemorrhage can be minimized and ject to a specific decision tree or paradigm but was left to the dis- the craniotomy defect can be brought into the desired position cretion of the attending neurosurgeon. In general, patients were by varying the CSF flow rate (pre- and intraoperatively). considered for this procedure when a bulging cranial defect was present without signs of cerebral edema or HC (Fig. 1). Patients 2. Methods who experienced only intraoperative bulging defect, received a conventional cannulation of the frontal horn of the lateral ventricle In this retrospective study, the data of consecutive patients through insertion of an EVD or a Cushing cannula. treated with preoperative lumbar drainage prior to CP surgery at All lumbar drains (Epidural Minipack System 4, Protex/Smiths our institution were analysed. Medical, Grasbrunn, Germany) were placed by a neurosurgeon. Patient demographic information, pathology, specific risk fac- Drainage of spinal fluid was typically maintained at 10 cc per hour tors and details of the surgery and hospital course were analysed. (volume led) depending on the shape of the cranial defect (Fig. 2). Further analysis focused on time of CP and LD placement, duration The drain was removed immediately after the operation. of LD, peri- and postoperative complications and neurological out- The data were retrospectively collected from the clinical data- come (assessed by modified Ranking Scale). base and inserted into an Excel analysis. For the descriptive Fig. 1. A+B:CT-scan of a female patient five month after an MCA-stroke and right-sided decompressive craniectomy. The cranial defect is raised over the bone margins and CP without drainage of CSF is not possible. C: CT-scan of the same patient one day after successful CP using the LD for CSF reduction. Fig. 2. Example of an LD placement. A patient with bulging cranial defect received an LD. Due to the continuous CSF drainage the bulging defect decreased to a normal head shape and CP can be performed. Please cite this article in press as: Giese H et al. Preoperative lumbar drainage placement for surgical cranioplasty. J Clin Neurosci (2018), https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jocn.2018.03.008 H. Giese et al. / Journal of Clinical Neuroscience xxx (2018) xxx–xxx 3 analysis, absolute and relative frequencies are given as mean and Table 3 standard deviation. Peri- and postoperative details of CP and LD placement. Cranioplasty Time between CE and CP days 3. Results Mean (Range) 163 (55–478) CP material n A total of 14 patients were included in this analysis. Indications Autologous 13 for DC are presented in Table 1. Patients had a mean age of 46 years PEEK 1 with a balanced gender distribution. The main indications for per- Installation CSF drainage n Pre-operative 10 forming CP after craniectomy were space-occupying cerebral Intra-operative 4 infarctions (64.3%) and traumatic brain injuries (14.3%). In the Drainage time hours majority of patients (93%), a one-sided decompression had been Mean 17 ± 15 performed and in one patient a bifrontal craniectomy had been Min 1 carried out. Patient specific risk factors are presented in Table 2. Max 48 Intra-operative details n The most common risk factors included arterial hypertension Dural injury 4 (71.4%) and nicotine abuse (28.6%). Fig. 3 shows the neurological Antibiotics n status (modified Ranking Scale) before CP surgery. Intra-operative 14 All peri- and postoperative details of CP and LD placement are Post-operative 9 Duration 3 ± 1.66 days described in Table 3. CP surgery was performed after an average Length of hospital stay days of 163 days following decompressive craniectomy. 13 patients Mean (Range) 9 (3–24) Table 1 (93%) received an autologous implant and one patient received Characteristics of patients undergoing CP-surgery. an alloplastic implant (PEEK, Synthes, Umkirch, Germany). LD were placed prior to CP (one day before or a few hours prior to surgery) Population 14 in 8 patients and in 4 cases immediately prior surgery during gen- Gender n (%) eral anaesthesia. LDs were maintained for an average of 17 ± 15 h Male 7 (50) (range, 1–48 h). All patients received prophylactic single