Treating nasoethmoidal encephalocele in a low-resource country: a surgical experience from a Philippine multidisciplinary craniofacial team

Purpose It was described that nasoethmoidal encephalocele repair in the Philippines has been limited by insufficient resources, financial constraints, and a lack of surgical expertise. The purpose of this study was to report initial results and complications of Philippine patients with nasoethmoidal encephalocele surgically managed with an approach adapted to an environment with limited financial resources. Methods All patients ( n = 21) with nasoethmoidal encephalocele who underwent intracranial and extracranial repairs (frontal wedge osteotomy to access the encephalocele cyst and cranial base defect, dural defect repair, split frontal grafts fixed with polydioxanone sutures to reconstruct the cranial defect and nasal dorsum, and medial canthopexy) from January 2015 to May 2017 were included. The correlations between sizes of masses and cranial defects with the occurrence of complications were tested. The surgical results were classified based on a previously published outcome grading scales I–IV on the need for additional surgery. Results Nineteen patients (90.5%) had unremarkable post-operative course. Two patients (9.5%) presented with complications (cerebrospinal fluid leak and surgical site infection) which were successfully managed with no additional surgery. The sizes of masses and cranial defects were not correlated ( p > 0.05) with complications. The overall rate of surgical results ranked according to the need for additional surgery was 2.4 ± 0.5 (between categories II and III). Conclusions We reported successful surgical repair of nasoethmoidal encephaloceles in Philippine patients by a local multidisciplinary craniofacial team.