• Ichiro Takumi and Masataka Akimoto.
• NMS Cranio-Facial Institute, Nippon Medical School Chiba Hokuso Hospital, Inba-gun Inba-mura, Chiba Hokuso 270-1694, Japan.
• Childs Nerv Syst. 2008 Aug 1;24(8):927-32.

ObjectiveIn children who have suffered a severe, extensive head trauma, cranioplasty is complicated because allografting is not advisable in pediatric patients and the amount of available autologous materials is limited. To overcome these problems, we employed a combination of autologous rib grafts and calvarial grafts for partial cranioplasty.Materials And MethodsWe named this partial cranioplasty technique 'catcher's mask cranioplasty'. Rib grafts were placed mimicking a baseball catcher's mask to obtain maximum strong coverage of the defect. Calvarial grafts were used to achieve a smooth forehead contour. Islands of osteoanagenesis were also used.ConclusionsThese autografts were of sufficient strength, esthetically satisfactory, and no patient developed sinking skin flap syndrome. Catcher's mask cranioplasty is a useful technique to successfully reconstruct the skull in pediatric patients with extensive cranial defects and an insufficient amount of autologous graft material.

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