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Background The expanded endonasal endoscopic approach provides excellent visualization and access to midline skull base lesions, albeit with a relatively high risk of postoperative cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leakage. We present our experience with the expanded endonasal endoscopic approach to the skull base in an institution where, previously, a traditional transsphenoidal approach with a surgical microscope had been used. Patients We performed a retrospective review to identify patients who underwent expanded endonasal endoscopic surgery and analyzed demographic, pathological, and operative data with particular attention to repair of the skull base defects in 55 procedures performed on 49 patients. We compared the outcomes of 10 primary operations in which we repaired skull base defects using only autologous or allogeneic tissue grafts and 39 primary operations in which we used a vascularized mucoperichondrial nasal septal flap with or without a layered autologous tissue graft. Results Primary expanded endonasal endoscopic procedures were performed in 49 patients with sellar pathology (33 pituitary adenomas, 4 Rathke's cleft cysts, 1 pituicytoma, 1 pituitary metastasis) and non-sellar pathology (3 meningiomas, 3 clival chordomas, 1 clival mucocele, 1 craniopharyngioma, and 2 esthesioneuroblastomas). Postoperative CSF leakage occurred following 5 of the 49 primary operations (10.2%). This occurred in 2 of 10 primary operations (20.0%) in which the skull base defect was repaired using only autologous and/or allogeneic tissue grafts, necessitating a total of 3 operative CSF leak repairs in those 2 patients. The remaining 3 postoperative CSF leaks occurred in the 39 primary operations (7.7%) in which skull base repair was performed using a mucoperichondrial nasal septal flap, necessitating operative repair in 2 of those patients. Conclusion The repair of skull base defects created during expanded endonasal endoscopic surgery is improved by use of a mucoperichondrial nasal septal flap combined with a layered autologous tissue graft. When CSF leakage occurs despite nasal septal flap closure, the site of the leakage may be easier to localize and repair.

Introduction A novel method is introduced for sellar floor reconstruction after expanded endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal surgery using concha bullosa bone autograft and vascularized, posteriorly based flaps of septal mucoperichondrium. Case report A 62-year-old woman presented to her primary care physician with the insidious onset of enlarging hands and feet, coarsening of facial features, and bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome. Endocrine studies revealed elevated growth hormone (22 ng/mL) and somatomedian-C (810 ng/mL) levels. Brain magnetic resonance imaging displayed a 1.2-cm pituitary adenoma. The patient was diagnosed with acromegaly secondary to a pituitary adenoma and underwent expanded endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal surgery for tumor resection. Preoperatively, the patient was noted to have abnormal right middle turbinate pneumatization (concha bullosa). Following adenoma resection, the sellar floor was reconstructed using concha bullosa bone autograft resected during the endonasal approach. Bilateral vascularized nasoseptal mucosal flaps were then placed over the sellar floor. Conclusion In patients with concha bullosa, conchal bone provides a useful substrate for sellar reconstruction after endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal surgery.