Extracranial-to-intracranial bypass using radial artery grafting for complex skull base tumors: technical note

The management of complex skull base tumors that incorporate large intracranial vessels poses challenging questions. Patients who fail initial surgical resection and adjunctive therapies (i.e., radiosurgery) who present with tumor regrowth may be candidates for parent vessel occlusion and total tumor resection in combination with extracranial-to-intracranial (EC-IC) bypass to augment the sacrificed vessel territory. In this technical report, we delineate the surgical technique of performing an EC-IC bypass using a radial artery graft. Our protocol of simultaneous cranial, neck, and forearm dissections by the surgical team to perform this procedure is described in detail.