Bovine pericardium duraplasty: Epidural abscess as a rare complication

Abstract

The following case of a posterior fossa decompression with duraplasty illustrates the occurrence of a rare complication of the procedure. The percentage of these procedures that develop complications vary greatly, ranging from 3–40% as is reported in the literature on the topic. Differences in complication rates between different types of grafts vary in the literature as well, with meta-analyses showing few significant differences between different graft types. Epidural abscess however, is rarely if ever sited as a complication for either synthetic or biological origin grafts. Additionally, the type of damage to the original bovine pericardium dural graft is rare as complications of CSF leaks are almost always reported as stemming from the suture line of the graft, not from damage to the center of the graft itself. Whether the complication was due to an inherent characteristic of the bovine pericardium itself or an outlying factor of the procedure is unknown, but it is important to note that this rare complication of an epidural abscess as well as the type of damage that caused the CSF leak is a possibility when performing posterior fossa decompression with duraplasty.

Keywords

• Neurosurgery
• Chiari I malformation
• Posterior fossa decompression
• Dural graft