Bur Hole

A Bur Hole is a circular hole drilled into the skull to relieve intracranial pressure or during certain medical procedures.

Increased intracranial pressure can be caused by the accumulation of blood, pus, or cerebrospinal fluid in the cranial cavity. In such cases, a burr hole can remove accumulated fluid and relieve pressure, thereby preventing brain damage.

In addition, burr holes are used to perform procedures such as aspirating fluid or pus from the cranial cavity and to take a sample of brain tissue (biopsy) for diagnostic purposes.

To create a burr hole, the surgeon drills or cuts a small circular hole, about 1 cm in diameter, into the skull bone. This procedure is performed under local anesthesia. After completion of the manipulations, the hole is usually closed with a special titanium cap or bone flap.

Thus, burr holes are small surgical holes in the skull that can effectively reduce intracranial pressure and carry out certain diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.

A bur hole is a circular hole drilled by a surgeon in the bones of the skull. The purpose of this procedure is to reduce increased intracranial pressure caused by the accumulation of excess blood, pus, or cerebrospinal fluid in the cranial cavity.

Burr holes are also used when carrying out diagnostic and therapeutic manipulations inside the skull - aspiration (removal) of pathological fluids or tissues for examination (biopsy).

Typically, holes are made with a diameter of 1-2 cm in the area of ​​the parietal or frontal bones using a special tool - a trephine. The procedure is performed under local anesthesia.

Burr holes allow you to quickly and minimally invasively solve the problem of increased intracranial pressure, as well as gain access to intracranial contents for the diagnosis and treatment of various brain diseases.

The hole in the head is known throughout the world as a "trepanal hole" (from the word "trepan" - "tree doll" - a genus of singing woodpecker that gouges holes in the bark of trees). Mentions of trepanation can be found in ancient Egypt, when doctors cut off part of the scalp. The procedure was necessary for medicinal purposes, by calming pain in various diseases, removing tumors and to measure the distance between the site of injury and the marrow bone. Trephination was also widely used for ear surgery to remove earwax, which could otherwise lead to inflammation or blood poisoning. In modern medicine, procedures involving trepanation are still actively used in operations related to inflammation of the meninges, surgical treatment of brain tumors, as well as biopsies of various tissues in the brain.