Outer table skull erosion causing rupture of scalp expander

Many various complications have been reported with tissue expansion since it was popularized by Radovan. As expected with any foreign body implantation, the most frequent complication is infection. Rupture of the expander is relatively rare even in the face of overexpansion or blunt external trauma. Complications from tissue expansion of the scalp are similar to those encountered with the placement of expanders elsewhere in the body. We had a case recently involving rupture of an expander placed in the scalp of an 18-month-old child as a result of erosion of the outer table with bone spur formation. This was a local reaction to the pressure exerted by the expander. We present the following case report to document another potential complication with tissue expansion of the scalp.