[Surgical indications in craniofacial injuries]

Precise definition of indications for surgery in patients with craniofacial injury is impossible, and individual assessment of each case by the surgeon can be a source of errors. These may be due to excess or omission when confronted with bone lesions which fail to supply information on the state of the dura mater, and with rhinorrhea with lack of sufficient criteria to assess the condition of the dura mater and its capacity for healing. Indications should therefore be modulated as a function of the different anatomoclinical types involving different risks. On the other hand, one should not search for perfection since other factors are involved when operating under emergency conditions, and one must not err by presumption, knowing that no reconstruction is perfect.