Collagen sponge is as effective as autologous fat for grade 1 intraoperative cerebral spinal fluid leakage repair during transsphenoidal surgery

To compare the efficacy of collagen sponge graft versus autologous fat graft in repairing grade 1 intraoperative CSF leakage and identify potential risk factors for failure repairing.We retrospectively recruited patients with grade 1 intraoperative CSF leakage repaired either with a collagen sponge (Group A), with autologous fat graft (Group B), or with only bipolar coagulation and gel foam packing (Group C). Patients with previous radiotherapy, repaired with additional materials, received postoperative lumbar drainage or without sufficient follow-up data were excluded. The primary outcome was the incidence of postoperative CSF leakage. We used propensity score matching to adjust for confounding when comparing Group A and Group B.459 patients (277 female and 182 male) were recruited. Among them, 296 patients were in Group A, 146 patients were in Group B, and the other 17 patients were in Group C. After propensity score matching, 146 and 146 patients were included in group A and group B, respectively. No difference was observed for the primary outcome in the matched cohort (p = 0.654) with three patients in Group A (1.0% and 2.1% before and after matching, respectively) and two patients in Group B (1.4% and 1.4% before and after matching, respectively) developed postoperative CSF leakage, respectively. Patients repaired only with gel foam and/or bipolar coagulation (OR 770.5, p < 0.001) and older age (OR 1.16, p < 0.001) were associated with a higher likelihood of postoperative CSF leakage.Collagen sponge is as effective as an autologous fat graft for grade 1 intraoperative CSF leakage repair during transsphenoidal surgery. Repair with gel foam and/or bipolar coagulation and older age are associated with a higher likelihood of postoperative CSF leakage.