Post-trepanation syndrome

Post-trepanation syndrome is a complex of neurological symptoms that can develop after craniotomy.

Craniotomy is a surgical operation that involves opening and removing a section of the skull bone. It can be performed for various reasons - to drain intracranial hematomas, access to intracranial tumors, relieve intracranial pressure during injuries, etc.

Post-trepanation syndrome is manifested by a variety of neurological symptoms, such as headache, dizziness, nausea, sleep disturbance, irritability, and convulsions. These symptoms are caused by impaired liquor dynamics as a result of changes in the anatomical relationships between the liquor spaces of the skull.

To diagnose post-trepanation syndrome, a neurological examination, CT or MRI of the brain is performed. Treatment includes drug therapy to eliminate individual symptoms, and in some cases, repeat cranioplasty may be required to restore the integrity of the skull bones.

Prevention of post-trepanation syndrome consists of adequate selection of patients for trepanation, careful adherence to surgical technique and postoperative monitoring for timely detection of complications.

Post-trepanation resection syndrome or Prebman's syndrome is a temporary, limited to 2-3 weeks, syndrome of plastic surgery of a skull defect through an incision in the back of the head with trepanoplasty autoplates from the tibia or meninges. This condition is sometimes called “Moldovan Puzzle” or Klein syndrome.