Résumé
BACKGROUND: Patients with cranial defects undergoing cranioplasty can develop complications related or unrelated to repair materials. OBJECTIVE: To explore the differences and similarities between the two-dimensional and three-dimensional digital shaping titanium meshes for cranioplasty. METHODS: The clinical data of 221 patients with skull repair were retrospectively analyzed. Two-dimensional digital shaping titanium mesh was used in 61 cases, and three-dimensional digital shaping titanium mesh used in 160 cases. Postoperative complications related (including exposure of titanium mesh and nail and loosening of titanium nail) or unrelated (including refractory subcutaneous effusion, epilepsy, scalp necrosis, scalp infection, intracranial infection and intracranial hematoma) to repair materials were summarized. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: There were 14 cases of complications (4 related and 10 unrelated) in the two-dimensional digital shaping titanium mesh group, including 2 cases of intractable subcutaneous effusion, 7 cases of epilepsy, 2 cases of titanium mesh and nail exposure, 2 cases of titanium mesh and titanium nail loosening and 1 case of scalp infection. There were 17 cases of complications (0 related and 17 unrelated) in the three-dimensional digital shaping titanium mesh group, including 5 cases of refractory subcutaneous effusion, 9 cases of epilepsy, 1 case of scalp necrosis, 1 case of intracranial infection and 1 case of intracranial hematoma. Significant differences in the complications related to repair materials were found between the two groups (χ2=5.577, P=0.018). Overall findings suggest that the craniotomy with three-dimensional digital shaping titanium mesh can cause fewer material-related complications than that with two-dimensional digital shaping titanium mesh.