After peek repair of the skull, can the hand feel the gap at the joint?

The need for prompt cranial repair of large cranial defects is a general consensus within the neurosurgical community and should be common knowledge among patients. It is common sense that every patient who undergoes cranial repair may want to maximize the possibility of restoration to the previous state of the defect, and this is what neurosurgeons should strive to achieve. For example, some patients ask if they can feel the gap at the junction after peek repair. This involves a question of the repair method, PEEK cranial repair is embedded, peek material and autologous bone window joints are smooth articulation, which is different from the traditional titanium mesh cranial repair of the overlay repair, below we specifically talk about these two ways. Titanium mesh cranial repair, is a cover type repair, titanium mesh material to be slightly larger than the size of the bone window, covered in the upper layer of the bone window, titanium mesh material not only covers the bone window cavity, but also the material and the periphery of the bone window with overlapping coverage. Although the titanium mesh is thin and light, the titanium mesh itself has a certain thickness, so the edge of the titanium mesh will have a certain convexity and concavity where it connects with the skull itself, which can be felt by the hand. And because the edge of the titanium mesh is relatively sharp, it may also cause cutting damage to the scalp, and even due to the tension of the material itself, the edge of the titanium mesh may be deformed and protrude, resulting in scalp breakage and exposure of the titanium mesh material. This is very dangerous. Another disadvantage is that the titanium mesh is thin and light and not hard enough, so it is easy to be deformed and collapse when it is subjected to external force. There are many other problems associated with titanium mesh skull repair, such as postoperative infection and rejection, unsatisfactory molding effect, affecting the CT MRI examination, and the patient’s sensitivity to hot and cold environments after the surgery. PEEK repair of the skull is an embedded repair. Applying 3D reconstruction 3D printing technology, the shape and size of PEEK material is exactly the same as that of the bone window, so it can be precisely embedded in the bone window with a tight seam, and the edges of the PEEK material and the edges of the bone window are accurately docked and smoothly articulated. Even if you touch the seam directly, you will feel very smooth, and the human scalp also has a certain thickness, the general human scalp to the thickness of the skull about a centimeter or so, so peek repair skull, through the scalp, the hand generally can not touch the seam at the joints, there should be no feeling, it’s very smooth. In addition PEEK material in all other aspects of performance are very excellent, in hardness, stiffness, elasticity, stability, thermal insulation, histocompatibility, plasticity, radiation permeability, magnetic compatibility, etc. are comparable with the autologous cranial bone, the clinical application of the effect is particularly good, and has become a new trend in the cranial bone repair materials. Our team is widely using this advanced polyether ether ketone PEEK material for cranial bone repair, and the team is also constantly improving the technology and optimizing the design of the material, adding a groove design on the edge of the PEEK material, and the connecting piece has also been innovated into the PEEK material, so that the place where the connecting piece is fixed can be smooth without any concavity, which will further enhance the patient’s comfort after the operation. We have also introduced the concept of cosmetic plastic surgery, so that we can comprehensively carry out PEEK cranioplasty and achieve ideal cranial bone repair results.