Transorbital Penetrating Skull-Base Injuries: Two Severe Cases with Wooden Branches and Review of the Literature

Introduction

Penetrating transorbital skull-base injuries are scarce in Europe, and therefore still remain challenging in their operative and intensive care therapy. Apart from missile and war associated experiences [1] [2], only a few spectacular case reports on injuries with, for example, an arrow, screwdrivers, chopsticks or wild deer's antlers [3] [4] [5] [6] [7], and small series are available in the literature. As injury patterns vary widely, cases of penetrating transorbital skull-base injuries can strongly differ from each other. Therefore, therapy and outcome for the patients depend on the exact pattern of injuries, especially the involvement of the orbit, cranial nerves, intracranial vessels, and the subsequent development of intracerebral infection.

In this article, we present 2 at first apparently similar cases of severe penetrating transorbital skull-base injuries with wooden sticks. However, the outcomes were completely different, which was related to the different involvement of cranial nerves and intracranial vessels.

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