Maxfacts

Skull

Treatments for postoperative problems affecting the skull include:

• Defects in the skull bone. Reconstruction can be carried out either when the defect is created or much later depending on the circumstances causing the defect. Generally, in a maxillofacial-only operation only the outer table of skull bone will be removed and this is often either replaced with synthetic tissue such as platelet reduced plasma or fibrin, or it fills in naturally. Sometimes protecting and creating a new outer skull shape is achieved by a layer using titanium mesh, PEEK (a polyether ketone polymer), acrylic, resorbable mesh made from polydioxanone, and similar. If full-thickness skull has been removed and is healthy it can be re-used as a shaped and fixed bone graft. Complex late skull reconstructions are often carried out using CAD/CAM technology.
• Scars. In male pattern baldness the coronal scar (a scar across the top of the head; common approach in trauma surgery) becomes visible but incisions are hidden in hairlines whenever possible. Scar revision involves excising the old scar and closing it primarily, various patterns to break up the straight line (to which the eye is naturally attracted) can be used.
• Headache for a day or two is not unusual. Simple analgesia and advice that it will improve is all that is needed. Accumulation of blood under the incision not resolved by a drain may require removal.