Abstract

The traumatisms of the anterior floor of the base of the skull represent 15 to 20% of the cranial traumatisms in general. These traumas threaten the overlying neuroencephalic structures and are very often responsible for osteomeningeal breccia exposing to a major infectious risk, with morphological deformations. This work is a descriptive retrospective study of 14 patients operated for fracture of the anterior floor of the base of the skull, at the department of stomatology and maxillofacial surgery of the hospital August 20, 1953 for a period of 3 years from January 2015 to December 2017. We found a male predominance of 78.5%, the causes are dominated by road accidents (50%), the diagnosis was suspected before the evocative signs (rhinorrhea, morphological deformations and periorbital bruising) and was confirmed in all patients by CT. Fractures of the anterior stage of the skull base were classified according to a classification that relates to the biomechanics of trauma; 28.6% of the patients had a medio-basicranial fracture, 71.4% had a latero-basicranial fracture. The ideal treatment is the surgical closure of the breccia to avoid the risk of meningitis, in combination with medical means, the ideal time of repair is beyond the 72^nd hour after the decrease of cerebral edema in case of absence an intracranial lesion requiring emergency intervention. The management of these fractures is often multidisciplinary because of the diversity of the clinical picture and the observed lesions.

Keywords: Fractures; Anterior Floor Base; Skull; Maxillo-Facial Surgery

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