ArticleThe Journal of craniofacial surgery2025
Cranioplasty Approaches and Outcomes in Low-Middle Income Countries: A Systematic Review.
Article in The Journal of craniofacial surgery, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Review
- Cranial Bone Repair and Regeneration After Trauma: Forensic and Clinical Medico-Legal Consequences.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe majority of techniques to perform cranioplasty can be expensive, especially for patients and surgeons in low-income and middle-income countries (LMIC). The purpose of this study is to perform a systematic review outlining surgical techniques and outcomes of cranioplasty in LMIC.
methodsA systematic review was conducted according to PRISMA guidelines. All studies describing cranioplasty procedures in developing countries or LMIC as self-described in papers or defined by the United Nations' published "List of Least Developed Countries." A search of PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane, yielded 59 studies. In total, 18 studies were included in the systematic review.
resultsIn total, 541 patients were included, with a mean age of 28.3 years. The top 3 most common cranial defects resulting in cranioplasty were nonspecific head trauma in 243 patients (%), followed by an infarct in 47 patients (8.7%), and vascular injury in 33 patients (6.1%). The mean time to cranioplasty was 8.51 months. The most frequent materials used in cranioplasty were autologous bone (62.8%), PMMA (24.8), and titanium (8.32%) implants. Five studies reported using 3D printing to make implant materials (27.8%). Overall, 79 patients (17.5%), experienced complications, with 23 patients (5.1%) experiencing infection and 11 patients (2.44%) experiencing wound dehiscence.
conclusionsWe report an overwhelming use of autologous bone flaps and PMMA implants for cranioplasty in LMIC due to their resource availability and cost-effectiveness, and a complication rate similar to the existing US-centric literature.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.