How long does it take to recover from a skull fracture?

How long it takes to recover from a skull base fracture depends on the severity of the patient's condition. The hospital doctor will take appropriate treatment measures based on the severity of the patient's condition. It is particularly important to note that patients with skull base fractures are prone to complications, and appropriate treatment measures should be taken in a timely manner for the complications of skull base fractures. Now let's take a closer look at the relevant content of skull base fracture.

1. Surgical treatment of skull base fractures

The most common intracranial hematoma complicated by skull base fracture is epidural hematoma. If the hematoma is large and occupies a significant space, the patient should undergo craniotomy to remove the hematoma and, if necessary, perform bone craniectomy to decompress the skull base fracture. No special treatment is required for the skull base fracture itself. For open skull base fractures occurring in the anterior cranial fossa, with fracture fragments embedded in the brain, surgery is required to remove necrotic brain tissue and remove bone fragments embedded in the brain. However, care should be taken to avoid unmanageable heavy bleeding caused by removing bone fragments.

Treatment of complications of skull base fractures

Skull base fracture complicated by severe epistaxis is one of the most difficult problems in clinical treatment. The site of injury and the source of bleeding are difficult to determine promptly and accurately in the case of severe epistaxis, and patients often die due to excessive bleeding and lack of timely treatment. The source of bleeding can be the external carotid system, the internal carotid system, or both. Perform local tamponade and cerebral angiography to quickly identify the source of bleeding, and embolization of the bleeding artery can achieve good results. During the treatment process, endotracheal intubation is required to remove blood from the airway to ensure that the airway is open. At the same time, blood transfusion is performed quickly, the carotid artery is compressed, and temporary ligation of the carotid artery is performed to stop bleeding if necessary.

Primary brainstem injury, bloody cerebrospinal fluid stimulation, and hypoxia can all cause cerebral edema. Effective dehydration treatment can prevent cerebral edema from aggravating secondary brainstem injury. Patients with normal renal function should be given 125 ml of 20% mannitol once every 6 to 8 hours, and hormone therapy should be given at the same time, because hormones can reduce cerebral edema, resist free radical production, and protect brain cells. The hormone dosage is dexamethasone 40-60 mg per day, added to mannitol in divided doses for intravenous drip, or methylprednisolone 500 mg, twice a day, for 3-5 days, not more than 7 days. Brainstem injury and secondary brain injury are mainly caused by calcium overload of nerve cells. Early use of calcium antagonists can prevent and treat traumatic cerebral vasospasm, adjust cerebral blood flow, ensure adequate nutritional supply, and monitor blood biochemistry to prevent water and electrolyte imbalance, prevent various complications, and provide early rehabilitation treatment.

Intracranial pneumothorax can usually be treated conservatively, and in this group of patients, the pneumothorax was absorbed on its own within 2 to 4 weeks. Intracranial infection is a serious complication of skull base fracture and prevention should be emphasized. Once it occurs, systemic and intrathecal antibiotics should be used and attention should be paid to supporting the therapeutic effect.