Sellar Floor Bone Flap With a Pedicled Nasoseptal Flap in Endoscopic Transnasal Pituitary Adenoma Surgery

To explore the clinical effect of sellar floor bone flap with a pedicled nasoseptal flap in endoscopic transnasal pituitary adenoma surgery for skull base reconstruction.Method: This was a retrospective clinical analysis of 30 patients with pituitary adenoma operated by the same neurosurgical team from June 2015 to June 2018. All patients were diagnosed with pituitary adenoma by pituitary magnetic resonance imaging, and the authors confirmed that the sellar floor bone was intact using sphenoid sinus computed tomography. All patients underwent an endoscopic transnasal approach, and the authors created a pedicled nasoseptal flap and sellar floor bone flap intraoperatively and reconstructed the skull base at the end of the surgery. Postoperative complications constituted cerebrospinal fluid leakage, brain tissue herniation, nasal discomfort, decreased sense of smell, and epistaxis.

Cerebrospinal fluid leakage occurred in 13 patients (43.3%) intraoperatively; small amounts in 6 patients (20.0%), moderate amounts in 3 patients (10.0%), and large amounts in 4 patients (13.3%). Only 1 patient (3.3%) with large-volume cerebrospinal fluid leakage intraoperatively experienced cerebrospinal fluid leakage postoperatively, and this resolved with lumbar catheter drainage and bed rest. The 6-month postoperative follow-up brain computed tomography findings revealed brain tissue herniation in no patients, nasal discomfort in 3 patients (10.0%), decreased sense of smell in 5 patients (16.7%), and epistaxis in 2 patients (6.7%).

Reconstructing the skull base with a sellar floor bone flap and a pedicled nasoseptal flap played an important role in preventing cerebrospinal fluid leakage and brain tissue herniation in endoscopic transnasal pituitary adenoma surgery and did not increase the incidence of postoperative nasal discomfort, decreased sense of smell, or epistaxis.