[Epidemiology of fronto-basilar head injuries]

Fractures of the cranial basis in the anterior cranial fossa accounted in a ten-year period in the material of the authors for 2.6% of cranial traumas and 24.6% of cranial basis fractures. In the observed cases rhinorrhoea was present in only 16% of cases. Purulent meningitis as a complication was observed in only 1.8% of cases and only late after the trauma. In view of the low frequency of inflammatory complications evidencing a considerable tendency for spontaneous healing of fistulas the authors suggest restriction of indications to surgical treatment in early period after trauma to cases with visible wide fissure in the fractures bone, displacement of fractured fragments and their position at different levels.