GENERAL NOTIONS OF CRANIOPLASTY

The skull is a bony cavity that protects the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bones, namely, the cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone, but two parts are more important: the skull and the mandible. In humans, these two parts are the neurocranium (brain shell) and viscerocranium (facial skeleton), which includes the mandible as its largest bone. The human cranium, the part that contains the brain, is globular and relatively large in comparison with the face. In most other animals the facial portion of the skull, including the upper teeth and the nose, is larger than the cranium. In humans the skull is supported by the highest vertebra, called the atlas, permitting nodding motion. In this paper we present the influence of neurosurgical procedures and materials to treat skull defects.