Sellar trough technique for endoscopic endonasal transclival repair

BACKGROUND: Endoscopic endonasal transclival approaches provide direct access to the ventral skull base allowing the treating of clival and paraclival pathology without the manipulation of the brain or neurovascular structures. Postoperative spinal fluid leak, however, remains a challenge and various techniques have been described to reconstruct the operative defect. The “gasket seal” has been well-described, but has anatomic challenges when applied to clival defects. We describe a modification of this technique for use in endonasal transclival approaches. METHODS: Two patients who underwent an endoscopic endonasal transclival approach for tumor resection with an intraoperative spinal fluid leak underwent a modified “gasket seal” closure technique for skull base reconstruction. RESULTS: A 71-year-old woman with a petroclival meningioma and a 22 year old with a clival chordoma underwent endoscopic endonasal transclival resection with the modified repair. No new postoperative deficits occurred and no postoperative spinal fluid leak was seen with a follow-up of 17 and 23 months, respectively. CONCLUSION: We describe the successful use of a simple, low risk, and technique modification of the “gasket seal” technique adapted to the clivus that allows for hard reconstruction and facilitates placement of the nasoseptal flap.