Early intervention for skull growth fractures

       Growing skull fracture (GSF) is a special type of skull fracture in infants and children, which is rare in clinical practice, difficult to diagnose at an early stage and causes neurological complications in children with delayed treatment. At present, the domestic and international view on the treatment of skull growth fracture is that it should be repaired as soon as it is diagnosed. With the gradual improvement in the understanding of growth fractures in our department, many children with growth fractures are seen at the first post-injury consultation and are repaired at an early stage of surgery. We call this treatment of contusion brain tissue removal + dural repair at the first post-injury visit early intervention for growth fractures.       We believe that: 1. CT or MRI suggesting herniation of brain tissue or local masses with puncture and extraction of bloody cerebrospinal fluid and/or contused brain tissue, and 2. short-term dynamic observation of progressive widening of the skull suture to 3 mm, or less than 3 mm, but with rounded and/or outwardly convex edges, is sufficient to diagnose a growth fracture. Early surgical management is possible after the first hospitalization with stable vital signs – necrotic brain tissue removal + dural repair + transferred bone flap + tipped rotating periosteal flap repair. No implants such as titanium plates are needed. Later, the child’s skull can grow on its own to achieve complete healing.       This method is the least traumatic and least expensive treatment for the child, and can effectively stop the progression of the growing skull fracture, prevent further damage to the brain tissue, and achieve an effective means of complete healing. In recent years, we have performed early intervention surgery on 20 children from all over China with good results.