Surgical Repair of Skull Base CSF Leaks after Cisternography Diagnosis: Analysis of Validity and Surgical Outcome and Impact on Future Treatment Strategies

Table 1

Patient characteristics categorized by etiology of CSF leak.

Etiology of liquorrhea		Number of procedures (cisternography and surgery due to liquorrhea) (%, level of significance)
		Traumatic: 19 (30.2)	Spontaneous: 23 (36.5)	Iatrogenic: 21 (33.3)
Sex	Female	6 (31.6, )	16 (69.6, )	10 (47.6, )
	Male	13 (68.4, )	7 (30.4, )	11 (52.4, )
BMI	<25	11 (57.9, )	3 (13.1, )	10 (47.6, )
	25-30	6 (31.6, )	9 (39.1, )	6 (28.6, )
	>30	2 (10.5, )	11 (47.8, )	5 (23.8, )
Presence of rhinoliquorrhea		17 (89.5, )	21 (91.3, )	13 (61.9, )
Presence of otoliquorrhea		2 (10.5, )	2 (8.7, )	9 (42.9, )
Presence of meningitis/brain abscess		4 (21.1, )	6 (26.1, )	6 (28.6, )
Cisternography defect detection	total^1	17 (89.5, )	17 (73.9, )	18 (85.7, )
	Anterior skull base^2	15 (78.9, )	12 (52.2, )	6 (28.6, )
	Lateral skull base^3	2 (10.5, )	5 (21.7, )	12 (57.1, )
Intraoperative defect detection		19 (100.0, )	19 (82.6, )	20 (95.2, )
Intraoperative encephalo-/meningocele		4 (21.1, )	5 (21.7, )	0 (0.0, )

¹Total number of skull base defects detected by cisternography (); ²defects detected at anterior skull base (); ³defects detected at lateral skull base (); statistically significant difference.