title: Prevention and management of skull base injury.
abstract: Skull base defects and injuries are rare, but may occur during endoscopic sinus surgery, as a result of facial trauma, or as a result of tumors in the anterior cranial fossa. Injury to the skull base can lead to catastrophic outcomes such as meningitis, brain abscess, neurological deficits, brain hemorrhage, and death. The content presents ways in which a surgeon may work to prevent or minimize injury to the skull base and describes management of skull base injuries when they do occur, reviews the current literature, and describes various reconstruction techniques used in free tissue grafts and pedicled grafts.
authors.affiliation: Division of Rhinology, Department of Otolaryngology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 7209 Medical Center East-South Tower, 1215 21st Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37232-8605, USA.
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Paul T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Russell
mesh_terms: D002558:Cerebrospinal Fluid Otorrhea; D003646:Debridement / Q000295:instrumentation; D004724:Endoscopy; D005004:Ethmoid Bone / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D009915:Orbit / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D010254:Paranasal Sinus Diseases / Q000601:surgery; D019651:Plastic Surgery Procedures; D019291:Skull Base / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000293:injuries* / Q000601:surgery; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed