Endoscopic endonasal cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea repair: a cohort study in Iraq

Background: Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) rhinorrhea is a condition where the protective fluid that surrounds the brain finds its way into the nose and sinuses, often appearing as a very watery runny nose. The main surgical approaches for the surgical repair of CSF leaks are intracranial and extracranial. Over the last decade, endoscopic surgery has established itself as the most widely used technique for the repair of CSF fistula. The current study aimed to describe the use of nasal endoscopic technique in the management of cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea repair. Results: Results of our study showed that in addition to CSF leak, 40% of the patients had headache and 17.5% had repeated meningitis. Half of the etiologies for the CSF leak were spontaneous, 35% were congenital, and 15% were traumatic. The more frequent site of leak was left cribriform plate (37.5%). In the majority of patients, 37/40 (92.5%), the type of graft was tensor fascia lata and fat, while in the remaining 3 patients, type of graft was tensor fascia lata and bone, bone and fat, and tensor fascia lata. The repair succeeded in 35 patients giving a success rate of 87.5%. Conclusion: It can be concluded that wide range of age groups from 2-62 years presented as CSF rhinorrhea with female predominance, and there was high success rate of endoscopic CSF rhinorrhea repair with low morbidity.