The extended endoscopic approach to perisellar and skull base lesions: is one nostril enough?

The extended endonasal endoscopic approach to the skull base is still under investigation. The main advantage of using this technique is to approach lesions in a minimally invasive manner resulting without brain retraction. Here, the authors present the results of extended endonasal endoscopic surgery via one nostril. All skull base procedures performed via an endonasal approach at the author’s Department between January 2011 and May 2017 were analysed prospectively. Special attention was paid to complications, radicality, advantages and disadvantages of the endoscopic technique. Additionally, the application of various telescopes and the technique of dural closure were analysed. Sixty-two patients were operated on various pathologies of the skull base via an extended endonasal approach. Seven pathologies were resected via binostril technique. All other pathologies could be exposed by the mononostril technique. In 2 of 62 cases, the authors had to switch to binostril technique. MRI revealed radical gross total resection in 93% of all cases when intended. Overall complication rate was 16% (9/55) in the mononostril and 57% (4/7) in the binostril cohort. Seven patients in the mononostril cohort (13%) versus three patients in the binostril cohort (43%) complained of postoperative nasal congestion. This clinical report shows that many extended skull base lesions can be treated by a mononostril endonasal approach. In selected cases, this technique might represent an alternative to the binostril approach. Nevertheless, the binostril technique offers a better range of manipulation and exposure and should be preferred in difficult and very extended cases.