Safety and Efficacy of Power Drills for Burr Hole Craniotomy in Small Resource Hospital

Document Type : Original Articles

Authors

1 Menoufia University, Faculty of Medicine, Neurosurgery Department

2 Head of neurosurgery department, Menoufia university, Faculty of medicine, Menoufia, Egypt.

3 Neurosurgery resident at neurosurgery department of faculty of medicine of Menoufia university

4 General practitioner at ministry of health.

5 Ass.Professor at Neurosurgery department, Menoufia university, Faculty of medicine, Menoufia, Egypt.

Abstract

Background: Burr hole craniotomy is a surgical procedure used to access the brain by creating small openings in the skull, commonly employed in treating chronic subdural hematoma. While manual twist drills are traditional but slow and intensive tools for this purpose, power drills offer speed but require caution to avoid brain damage.
Object: To determine the safety and time efficiency of power electric drills in performing burr hole and craniostomy when they are available in low-resource hospitals.
Methods: This prospective cohort study involved 40 patients with a mean age of 35 years. The study included patients undergoing cranial surgeries requiring burr holes for craniotomy or craniectomy. A powerful electric drill with a perforator piece of a manual drill inserted in it was used. The drills were used to create the necessary burr holes for the surgery and to design specific craniectomy flaps, which were later cut using a Gigli saw and an introducer. The total number of burr holes in each case, the time taken for each burr hole, and the bone thickness in every case were recorded during the surgery.
Results: We operated on 40 patients. The time of each burr hole ranges from 35 seconds to 60 seconds, with a mean 45 seconds ±11 SD. During the usage of power drills, there were no detected complications.
Conclusion: Power electric drills are considered safe and time-efficient in performing burr hole and craniostomy when they are available in low-resource hospitals.

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