Surgical outcomes in the treatment of temporal bone cerebrospinal fluid leak: A systematic review

Temporal bone CSF leak represents a rare condition that may be associated to some particular symptoms as hearing loss, otorrhea and tinnitus. In the opinion of many authors a surgical treatment is mandatory to avoid serious consequences as meningitis. Middle cranial fossa (MCF), transmastoid (TM) and combined approaches are all described to manage this condition. The objective of this paper was firstly to analyze the overall outcomes of this surgery. Our second aim was to make a comparison between different surgical modalities on the basis of their rate of success and complications