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Updated: Aug 17, 2026
Endoscopic Endonasal Trans-sphenoidal Approach: Minimally Invasive Surgery for Pituitary Adenomas
Published on: January 17, 2018
A novel nasoseptal flap harvesting technique in revision expanded endoscopic transsphenoidal approaches
Edmond J Gandham1, Rajan Sundaresan2, Regi Thomas2
1Department of Neurosurgery, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India.
Objectives:
To describe the technique of harvesting the nasoseptal flap (NSF) in revision-expanded endoscopic approaches (EEA).
Study Design:
We retrospectively analyzed four cases of endoscopic skull base reconstruction (ESBR) following revision EEA done for pituitary adenoma recurrence. The presence of an intact mucoperiosteum between the nasal septum and the roof of the choana as judged on a preoperative endoscopic and radiological assessment was considered to be sufficient for the presence of a viable pedicle. By strategic placement of the incisions, the entire bilateral posterior nasal septal mucoperiosteum was raised in the NSF containing the remnant vascular pedicle. ESBR was performed with multilayer grafting of the dural defect, and the NSF was placed onto the bony margins of the defect.
Results:
All patients had successful skull base reconstruction with the NSF raised by this technique as none of them developed postoperative cerebrospinal fluid leak.
Conclusion:
Though the number of patients in this study is small, we would like to present the concept of harvesting the NSF in revision surgery, wherein neither measuring the surface area of the pedicle nor the acoustic Doppler assessment of the pedicle is required.
