Curious about what Skull Base styloidectomy means. Does this mean they take out the entire styloid? Is this even possible? or do they leave maybe 1 cm to 1.5 cm in there? I heard many docs do not go super far inside because of the fear of hitting the nerves.
I’m not sure what that means if written on surgery orders. As you have noticed there are some doctors who will not go all the way back (always) and then others who will (mostly) go all the way… depending on the anatomy. Seems the best bet is to go with a doctor who regularly does this surgery. Most are ENT Skull Base Oncologists.
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It is possible to remove the styloid completely to the skull base, yes, and we always believed that removing the styloids back to the skull base meant that, but we’ve recently found that some doctors who we thought were doing that surgery did leave a small part of the styloid still. Obviously any doctor wouldn’t remove the styloid back any further than is safe to do so; they monitor the nerves through surgery to ensure that they’re not getting damaged.
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