gms | German Medical Science

Objective: The Piezosurgery device is already well known in the domain of dental and implant surgery. The field of published indications for this tool became larger and larger by time. The main advantages for its use in neurosurgery seem to be the soft tissue protection as well as a more aesthetic outcome with lower complications.

Method: For a period of 2 months, different trepanations in 25 patients were performed with the Mectron^® Piezosurgery medical device (Mectron Medical Technology, Carasco, Italy). All patients were prospectively entered into a database. Data collected included basic demographics, dimension of the trepanation and time needed for it, as well as a complication rate during the trepanation and a follow-up about 3,3 months in mean.

Results: We were able to perform the trepanations in all cases with the Mectron^® Piezosurgery medical device. In other words, no instrumental change had to be done. Refixing the bone was uneventful because of the perfect shape, which also was the reason for a more aesthetic outcome. In relation to the whole operation time, the proportion for the craniotomies itself was 7% in average. The soft tissue protection succeeds in the most cases. Even in those few cases with intra-operative dural lesions, there weren't any complications in the follow-up, like infections or cerebrospinal fluid fistulas.

Conclusions: Based on the very good results in patients follow-up we were able to show, that the Piezosurgery device is a good alternative for performing craniotomies. The final result is usually not measured by time needed but by its quality. That's why in our opinion piezosurgery will establish itself in neurosurgery of adult patients.