What is cranial endoscopy?
Cranial endoscopy is a set of neurosurgical techniques that use a camera-light system with a working channel to access internal cavities of the central nervous system in the least invasive way possible. In Neurosurgery endoscopy is mainly used for the treatment of pathology related to intracerebral cavities or ventricles through which cerebrospinal fluid circulates (hydrocephalus, intraventricular tumors) known as ventricular endoscopy and in the pathology of the pituitary and anterior skull base (pituitary adenomas, anterior skull base meningiomas, craniopharyngiomas, clivus tumors, etc.), known as endoscopy. …), known as transnasal endoscopy.
What are its objectives?
The main objective of endoscopy applied to neurosurgery is the minimal invasiveness of the procedures carried out with this technique. That is to say, endoscopy allows access, exploration and manipulation of deep regions of the central nervous system with minimal damage to other surrounding structures and tissues, thus avoiding sequelae resulting from injury to these tissues.
What kind of diseases can we diagnose?
Above all, endoscopy in neurosurgery is a therapeutic technique allowing the treatment of disorders such as hydrocephalus due to obstruction (creating a “by pass” in the brain base for the passage of cerebrospinal fluid), tumors inside the ventricles (for example, colloid cyst or subependymomas) and pituitary tumors of the selar region or the anterior cranial base.
Does the implementation of this technique involve much risk for the patient?
Endoscopic surgery, as has been mentioned, reduces the invasiveness of the procedure, thus reducing the risk of sequelae derived from the manipulation of the nervous system. Nevertheless, it is not a technique free of risks minimized in expert hands and with the most appropriate support technology. Among the risks of ventricular endoscopy, hemorrhage inside these cerebral cavities would stand out, which would make it very difficult to continue with the procedure due to lack of vision. On the other hand, among the risks of nasal endoscopy, the one derived from the closure of the opening made in the nasal cavity, which could cause cerebrospinal fluid to leak outwards, stands out above all. The loss of this fluid is not the problem since it is replaced daily. The main risk is infection, so measures must be taken to seal the pore that allows the liquid to escape to the outside. In general, these risks are greatly minimized nowadays thanks to increasingly advanced technical resources that increase the safety of the procedure.