Abstract
The objective of the study is to evaluate the surgical outcome between free nasoseptal mucoperichondrial flap using septal cartilage vs fascia lata using fat in terms of morbidity, hospital stay and postoperative complications. It is a retrospective comparitive study of 127 patients, diagnosed with CSF leak and who underwent repair of anterior skull base defect using free nasoseptal mucoperichondrial graft with septal cartilage in 73 cases compared with fascia lata with fat in 54 cases over the time frame of 5 years. The success rate with free nasoseptal flap with septal cartilage was 97.3% and that with fascia lata with fat was 96.3%. There was a significant association between mean hospital stay and the technique of CSF repair (unpaired t test, p -0.02). In our study the complications following the repair with free nasoseptal flap with septal cartilage was significantly less (p < 0.05, chi square test). The above study concludes that in patients treated with free nasoseptal flap using septal cartilage has less hospital stay, less post-operative morbidity in the form of pain, movement and dependence for cleaning and dressing in comparison to fascia lata using fat.