Endoscopic craniectomy for early surgical correction of sagittal craniosynostosis.

OBJECT: The authors sought to minimize scalp incisions, blood loss, and operative time by using endoscopically assisted strip craniectomies and barrel-stave osteotomies to treat infants with sagittal suture synostosis.

METHODS: Four patients, aged 2, 4, 9, and 12 weeks, who presented with scaphocephaly underwent endoscopic midline craniectomies through small midline scalp incisions. The mean operative time for the procedure was 1.68 hours (range 1.15-2.8 hours); the mean blood loss was 54.2 ml (range 12-150 ml). Three patients did not require blood transfusions and were discharged within 24 hours. Postoperatively, all patients were fitted with custom cranial molding helmets. Follow-up evaluation ranged between 8 and 15 months. All patients had successful correction of their scaphocephaly with no mortalities, morbidities, or complications.

CONCLUSIONS: The use of endoscopic techniques for early correction of sagittal synostosis is safe; decreases blood loss, operative time, and hospitalization costs; and provides excellent early surgical results.