Does A CT Scan Show The Thickness Of The Skull To Harvest Cranial Bone Grafts?

Q: Dr. Eppley, Hello. I need face reshaping and i want to use cranium bone grafts to augment my retruded midface and floor of orbits. Some surgeons told me that i have to do a 3D CT scan for evaluation. This is important because my doctor left me know that the thickness of the skull bone is different on all patients. So when I do the  3D CT will it show in detail the thickness of my skull in  milimeters to understand how much bone grafts can be taken from my head to reconstruct my midface and orbits?

A: While a 2D or a 3D scan will allow the various skull bone thicknesses to be measured it is not really necessary. Short of the forehead and temporal region split thickness cranial bone grafts can be harvested anywhere inside the bony temporal lines of the skull. Since the skull has three distinct layers it is the outer cortical table that is taken for cranial bone grafts, not the full thickness of the bone. Scan or no scan you have plenty of good bone to harvest for orbital and midface augmentation.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana