SUCCESSFUL CLOSURE OF CEREBROSPINAL FLUID RHINORRHEA BY ENDONASAL SURGERY

THE DISCHARGE of cerebrospinal fluid through the nose after injury and operation and its spontaneous escape through the nose is known today as a common occurrence. The first description of a cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea after fracture of the skull dates back, according to St. Clair Thomson,¹to Bidloo the Elder, in 1745 (cited by Morgagni). Apparently this had been forgotten, because Blandin²in 1840 claimed to be the first to describe such an incident. Spontaneous cerebrospinal rhinorrhea was described by Charles Miller in 1826, according to Thomson and Negus,³in a patient with hydrocephalus in whom communications were found at autopsy between the nasal and the cranial cavity. The observation of an aerocele during lifetime became possible only with the introduction of x-ray techniques. The first diagnosis of this sort was published by Luckett⁴in 1913. There existed only one case, that of H. Chiari⁵