Split Calvarial Bone Graft for Reconstruction of Skull Defect in Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare disease in which histiocytes proliferates in several tissues. It mainly occurs in children between 1 and 15 years of age, and affects bone especially the skull being the most common site of invasion. It is desirable to reconstruct the skull defect after surgical removal of the lesion with autologous bone considering the fact that this disease affects children who continuously experience the deformation and growth of the frontal head. We introduce a case report who reconstructs the skull defect using split calvarial bone graft in LCH. A 3-year-old male visited the hospital with a painful, palpable protruding mass in the frontal area lasting 1 month. Craniectomy with skull tumor removal was performed by neurosurgeon, after that we harvested a calvarial bone graft and carefully separated the outer cortex from the inner cortex. Then, we covered the donor site with the inner cortex while covered the bone defect with the outer cortex and fixed with absorbable plates. The patient showed palpable mass at 1-year follow-up but it disappeared. After 5 years, there was no recurrence, the lytic lesion of the skull was resolved, and showed cosmetically good result. We conclude that the palpable lesion was more likely to be the result of postoperative swelling of the plate. We propose split calvarial bone graft as a good treatment option for reconstruction of the skull defect in LCH.