Treatment for chronic abscess after cranioplasty: reconstruction of dura maters using the anterolateral thigh flap with fascia lata.

Although artificial dura maters such as Gore-Tex are used in cranioplasty, the use of artificial products occasionally results in the formation of infectious lesions. Recently, we encountered two patients who underwent brain surgery and contracted infection from artificial dura maters used for cranioplasty. To treat the postoperative infection, we prepared a vascularized fascia lata attached anterolateral thigh flap that could be applied to the infected wounds in the reconstruction of dura maters and obtained satisfactory results. The present study demonstrated that fascia lata attached anterolateral thigh flaps were useful for reconstructing intractable cranial fistulae complicated by infection. The disadvantages of our surgical technique were the impossibility of simultaneous bone reconstruction and the difficulty in creating a watertight closure of fascia and dura mater, although leakage of cerebrospinal fluid was not observed so far.