What is craniosynostosis and what causes it?
Craniosynostosis is a group of diseases, congenital malformations, which consist of premature closure of the sutures of the skull bones. The cranial sutures are a series of fibrous joints that fundamentally allow the deformation of the skull to pass through the birth canal and in the first year of life allow the expansion of the brain, which in this first year of life is exponential, it is very fast, so that the skull can expand. If we do not treat craniosynostosis, it can lead to a problem of closure of the bony case and a series of cranial deformities that we can and should correct.
What are the symptoms?
The symptoms of craniosynostosis are basically of two types. Firstly, a very obvious one, which is cranial deformity, the closure of a suture or of several cranial sutures gives rise to a series of deformities consisting of bulging or flattening of the cranial vault and also of the base of the skull. But in addition to this deformity, which is fundamentally aesthetic, it can end in a problem of cerebral compression. The closure of these sutures prevents the skull from expanding in an appropriate manner and the brain that remains contained inside this inextensible bony case can lead to brain compression problems. This is the fundamental reason why a craniosynostosis should preferably be treated in the first year of life.
What does the surgery consist of?
The treatment of craniosynostosis is surgical. This treatment should ideally be performed in the first year of life. When the craniosynostosis is simple, we can opt for minimally invasive surgeries. Minimally invasive surgeries consist of a series of small cuts in the bone that we perform through small cranial incisions through which we are going to expand the cranial vault and correct the accompanying deformities. In those craniosynostoses in which several sutures are affected, as in the case of craniofacial syndromes, we must perform more aggressive surgeries in which we remodel the entire frontoorbital region and the cranial vault in order to correct both the aesthetic deformity and the skull inextension. Really in the hands of an expert team in a unit where both surgeons and anesthesiologists, as well as nursing and auxiliary team are well coordinated, the chances of having a good evolution and minimal morbidity are very high. And the outcome of these patients is generally very satisfactory.