A Clinical Study of Cranioplasty

Zander, in 1940, was the first to perform a cranioplasty with methylmetacrylate, and around the same time Kleinschmidt, in experiments on rabbits, demonstrated its nonirritative character. Brain edema often forced us not to replace the skull bone flap. Under such circumstances, mostly 3 to 4 months later, we had undertaken delayed cranioplasty. Authors reviewed 62 cases of head injuries with skull defect repaired by cranioplasty using methylmetacrylate resin. The results were as follows; 1. The majority of head injuries caused in the vehicle accident. 2. The most common sites of the skull defect were in the temporal and frontal bone. 3. The interval between primary decompressive craniectomy and delayed cranioplasty was from 3 to 4 months in the majority of cases. 4. Defects may fill in spontaneously to leave no visible evidence of it's presence. 5. The syndrome of the trephined was not relieved by cranioplasty. 6. The course of the post-traumatic epilepsy was not altered by cranioplasty. 7. Headache may be refered to the site of a cranial plate. 8. Cosmetic results were excellent. 9. Postoperative complications were observed in 4 cases(6.5%)