[Craniosynostoses in Egypt: clinical forms and treatment methods. A study of 55 surgically treated patients]

The relative incidence of the various craniosynostosis deformities in Egypt is given on a total of 55 patients who were operated upon. The most common deformity was oxycephaly, 25 cases (i.e. 45%). Various surgical methods have been applied depending on the deformity present. In isolated scaphocephalic deformities (9 cases), 3 pairs of strip craniectomies also called "the triple strip" were sufficient and gave satisfactory results. For other types of deformities, an attempt was made to improve the aesthetic results following simple forehead advancement, which was done for the first five cases. A newly suggested combined procedure of multiple craniectomies and forehead advancement was applied on 41 patients. This combined "three flap procedure" has been previously presented by the authors (Gheita and Assaad, 1987). In this study it has been further modified so as to be suitable for infantile as well as adult deformities, thus defining them as type I and type II variations. The principle of the technique consists of combining the forehead advancement flap with two pairs of strip craniectomies: a pair of para-sagittal ones and another pair of spheno-temporal ones going to the cranial base as far as the edge of the foramen ovale. This is known as type I. In the type II variety the median strip of bone overlying the sagittal sinus is broken posteriorly so as to lower the vault of the skull whenever necessary, and the spheno-temporal craniectomy is not carried as far downward to the foramen ovale but stops at the level of the zygomatic arch. The details of these techniques are demonstrated.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)