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Indian Journal of Neurotrauma 2017; 14(01): 043-045
DOI: 10.1055/s-0037-1603815
Case Report
Thieme Medical and Scientific Publishers Private Ltd.

Cranioplasty for the Relief of Chronic Pain: 70 Years after the Debridement of the War-Penetrating Craniocerebral Injury

Spaić Milan
1   Department of Neurosurgery, University Clinical Centre Zemun, Belgrade-Zemun, Serbia
,
Aleksić Vuk
1   Department of Neurosurgery, University Clinical Centre Zemun, Belgrade-Zemun, Serbia
› Author Affiliations
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Publication History

08 May 2017

12 May 2017

Publication Date:
24 July 2017 (online)

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Abstract

We report the case of a 75-year-old female patient who underwent primary debridement of the penetrating craniocerebral injury at the age of 5 years. The injury was caused by the explosive shrapnel wound in the parietal right-side region because of an air raid in Yugoslavia in 1944 during World War II (WWII) combat. The scull defect that remained was not repaired. The patient developed the severe allodinic pain syndrome in the skin over the cranial defect, 70 years after the surgery. The skin over the cranial defect was infolded inside the skull and stretched over the bony ridge. The pain was relieved by cranioplasty that restored the cranial vault and reversed the infolding skin over the craniectomy defect. The mechanism of the pain and its relation with the morphologic changes of the primary craniectomy and brain debridement over time are discussed.

Keywords

chronic pain - penetrating brain injury - explosive wound - debridement of the gunshot brain injury - cranioplasty

Note

This article has never been submitted, published, or reported elsewhere. All authors approve the article for publication.


 

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