Duraplasty using amniotic membrane versus temporal muscle fascia: A clinical comparative study

In the field of neurosurgery, often the dura mater cannot be sutured, and consequently, it requires a duraplasty procedure using a dural fascial graft. Since 1890, various materials have been researched as dura mater substitutes. Amniotic membrane, for example, is suitable as a dural graft material and has been used in neurosurgery since 2012. However, there has been little research on human patient's dural healing after the use of amniotic membrane in their duraplasty procedure. To address this gap, a clinical experimental study was undertaken to evaluate the human dural healing of 16 patients who had undergone duraplasty in decompressive craniectomy surgery at Dr. Soetomo General Hospital, Surabaya. The amniotic membrane allograft, was sutured to cover the dural defect for eight randomly chosen patients (Group I). The fascial autograft from the temporal muscle had been applied for eight other patients (Group II). Between 10 and 20 weeks after surgery, the patients underwent cranioplasty and dural healing evaluation by cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leakage testing through the edge of the dural defect. The fibrocyte infiltration around the edge of the dural defect was examined histologically. Statistical analysis, using an independent t-test, was performed with a confidence interval of 95%. The results of the clinical and histological analysis suggest that an amniotic membrane graft was able to provide watertight dural closure and adequate fibrocyte infiltration comparable with that provided by temporalis muscle fascia. This study shows that using an amniotic membrane in neurosurgery has a potential advantage over an alternative dural healing.