• Vittorio Rampinelli, Edoardo Agosti, Giorgio Saraceno, Marco Ferrari, Stefano Taboni, Davide Mattavelli, Alberto Schreiber, Michele Tomasoni, Tommaso Gualtieri, Marco Ravanelli, Barbara Buffoli, Rita Rezzani, Marco Maria Fontanella, Piero Nicolai, Cesare Piazza, Alberto Deganello, and Francesco Doglietto.
• Unit of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Department of Medical and Surgical Specialties, Radiologic Sciences, and Public Health, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy. Electronic address: vittorio.rampinelli@gmail.com.
• World Neurosurg. 2021 Aug 1; 152: e128-e137.

BackgroundThe endoscope-assisted subtemporal key-hole epidural approach (ESKEA) has been recently described. The aim of this study was to measure working volumes and exposure of key areas of the middle cranial fossa provided by this approach.MethodsFour fresh frozen cadaver heads were dissected to analyze 3 modular corridors (1A, 1B, and 2) harvested through ESKEA. A step-by-step dissection was performed, and key anatomic landmarks were recorded. A GTxEyesII-ApproachViewer was used to quantify the working volume and exposure of 4 different regions (sphenoorbital, parasellar, superior petrous apex, and squamopetrous). For each corridor, 3 incremental degrees of temporal dural retraction (5, 10, and 15 mm) were tested.ResultsThe working volume of all corridors progressively increased with degree of retraction: Corridors 1A, 1B, and 2 showed a gain in working volume of 21%, 27%, and 19% from 5 mm to 10 mm retraction, respectively, and a gain of 40%, 45%, and 44% from 5 mm to 15 mm retraction, respectively. The sphenoorbital area was exposed (27%-45%) through corridor 1A, and exposure significantly increased with the degree of retraction. Corridor 1B provided optimal exposure of parasellar areas (86%-100%) and superior petrous apex (70%-87%) regardless of the degree of retraction. The squamopetrous area was satisfactorily addressed through corridor 2 (88%) only with the highest degree of retraction.ConclusionsESKEA can be conceived as a modular approach: the 3 surgical corridors have specific working volumes, which are clearly influenced by the degree of temporal lobe retraction, and provide exposure of different middle cranial fossa areas.Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

22 keywords...

hide…