Bifrontal craniotomy

The extended bifrontal craniotomy is a traditional skull base approach used to target difficult tumors towards the front of the brain or anterior skull base fracture. It is based on the concept that it is safer to remove extra bone than to unnecessarily manipulate the brain.

The extended bifrontal craniotomy involves making an incision in the scalp behind the hairline and removing the bone that forms the contour of the orbits and the forehead. This bone is replaced at the end of surgery. Temporarily removing this bone allows surgeons to work in the space between and right behind the eyes without having to unnecessarily manipulate the brain.

Corpus callosotomy

No need to section anterior commissure.Can usually be performed via a bifrontal craniotomy utilizing a bicoronal skin incision.

Brain tumors that may be treated with extended bifrontal craniotomy include:

Meningiomas

Esthesioneurblastomas

Malignant skull base tumors

Extended bifrontal craniotomy is typically used for those tumors that are not a candidate for removal by minimally invasive approaches because of either the anatomy of the tumor, the possible pathology of the tumor or the goals of surgery.

see Frontobasal approach