EVALUATION AND MANAGEMENT OF ANTERIOR (RH INOBASAL) AND POSTERIOR (OTOBASAL) SKULL FRACTURES

The large number of craniocerebral injuries with fractured bones entai ls an essential field of diagnostic and therapeutic activities for the hospital-based otorhinolaryngologist. It is only with the active invo lvement of experienced clinicians that paranasal sinuses can be inspec ted, lesions of the dura mater closed and functional structures of the petrous bone restored. Over a twelve-year period, 311 injuries of the base of the skull were treated in the Magdeburg Department of Otorhin olaryngology. Clinical findings, complications and therapeutic methods used during acute treatment, as well as permanent and late effects in patients with anterior and posterior skull base fractures were analyz ed in a comparative approach. Depite early surgery of frontal base fra ctures, late sequelae have been extensive and resulted in far-reaching changes in patients injured. Temporal bone fractures have presented l ess problems following mainly conservative acute treatment, with late sequelae exclusively comprising local symptoms in the area of the frac ture. Analysis of the present results of treatment demonstrates that o torhinolaryngologists, in cooperation with neurosurgeons, traumatologi sts, oral surgeons, ophthalmologists, neurologists and intensive care physicians, can efficiently and adequately treat fractures of the base of the skull.