Subcranial approach in pediatric craniofacial surgery

We report our experience with the subcranial approach, developed at the Plastic Surgery Unit of Hospital "Ricardo Gutiérrez," for the treatment of injuries in the frontoethmoidal orbital region in pediatric patients. The subcranial approach was described by Raveh et al for the treatment of fractures in the frontoethmoidal area. The subcranial approach was used later for surgery of tumors and deformities of the frontoethmoidal region. We have used this approach in nine cases of nontraumatic injuries (one meningioma, one orbital bone fibrous dysplasia, one vascular malformation, five nasal dermoid cysts, and one fronto-orbital mucocele). One patient with vascular malformation died of a stroke 10 days after surgery. The patient with the meningioma had a recurrence. Another patient developed an infection that needed surgical resolution and hardware removal. A third patient suffered a mild infection that receded with medication. No other complications were registered. The surgical exposure obtained through this approach was always excellent and left no cosmetic defects. There was no evidence of facial growth disturbance in this group of patients, except in one patient who received radiotherapy after surgery. Operative time and hospitalization were lower in this group than in patients with conventional frontal craniotomy.