ABSTRACT
Severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI) as the most common emergency severe syndrome in neurosurgery has a high mortality and poor prognosis. Decompressive craniectomy is the first treatment choice for sTBI. The reverse question mark incision was usually adopted in decompressive craniectomy, but some scholars also suggest using the n-type incision and Kempe incision. Although the curative effect is remarkable when using the above incisions, the incidence of postoperative complications is high, such as cerebrospinal fluid leakage, poor wound healing and flap ischemic necrosis. Moreover, the advantages and disadvantages of different incisions are not clear. Therefore, some scholars proposed retroauricular incision decompressive craniectomy for sTBI patients because this incision that retains blood supply through a new flap can provide better decompression effect and reduce incision-related complications. The authors review the research progress in retroauricular incision in aspects of the methods, indications and its advantages and disadvantages in constrast with other incisions, so as to provide a theoretical basis for the selection of incision for decompressive craniectomy in sTBI patients.