Abstract: Objective  To investigate the clinical outcomes of cranioplasty with polyether ether ketone(PEEK) or titanium after large craniectomy in patients. Methods  Clinical data of 150 patients undergoing skull repair due to large frontotemporal skull defect in our hospital from April 2018 to June 2022 were retrospectively analyzed,and they were divided into titanium mesh group and PEEK group according to different repair materials.The conditions of surgical site infection,bleeding,subcutaneous effusion,seizure,implant rupture or exposure in the two groups were compared.Results In the PEEK group,96.3% of patients needed to implant the repair material under the temporal muscle,which was significantly higher than that in the titanium mesh group(78.1%) (P＜0.05).There were no significant differences in postoperative complications including infection,bleeding,seizure,implant rupture or leakage between the two groups (P>0.05).However,the incidence of postoperative subcutaneous effusion in PEEK group was higher than that in titanium mesh group (14.8% VS 4.2%,P＜0.05),and the difference was statistically significant.Conclusion  Both titanium and PEEK can be used in cranioplasty for patients with large frontotemporal cranial defects.Subcutaneous effusion is common in patients underwent cranioplasty with PEEK postoperatively,which needs to be paid more attention.

Key words: large cranial defects, cranioplasty, titanium, polyether ether ketone, subcutaneous effusion