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Review
. 2023 Mar 10;59(3):540.
doi: 10.3390/medicina59030540.

High-Resolution Computed Tomography as an Initial Diagnostic and Localization Tool in Patients with Cerebrospinal Fluid Rhinorrhea: A Meta-Analysis

Do Hyun Kim  1 , Sung Won Kim  1 , Jae Sang Han  1 , Geun-Jeon Kim  1 , Mohammed Abdullah Basurrah  2 , Se Hwan Hwang  3
Affiliations
Review

High-Resolution Computed Tomography as an Initial Diagnostic and Localization Tool in Patients with Cerebrospinal Fluid Rhinorrhea: A Meta-Analysis

Do Hyun Kim et al. Medicina (Kaunas). .

Abstract

Background and Objectives: This study was performed to investigate the utility of high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) for the initial localization of cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea. Methods: HRCT data regarding the point of cerebrospinal fluid leakage (as confirmed in the operating room), collected up to December 2022, were extracted from five databases. The risk of bias of the included studies was assessed using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2 tool. Results: The search revealed eight relevant studies with a total of 254 patients. The diagnostic odds ratio of the imaging studies was 10.0729 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.4486; 41.4376; I2 = 54.1%). The area under the summary receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.8. Sensitivity, specificity, the negative predictive value, and the positive predictive value were 0.7550 (95% CI: 0.6163; 0.8553; I2 = 69.8%), 0.8502 (95% CI: 0.5986; 0.9557, I2 = 49.3%), 0.4106 (95% CI: 0.2418; 0.6035; I2 = 59.0%), and 0.9575 (95% CI: 0.8955; 0.9834; I2 = 27.7%), respectively. Conclusions: HRCT can be used to accurately localize cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea because it shows bony defects in high detail. However, it has limited utility for the evaluation of active leakage, and localization is difficult in the presence of coexisting lesions.

Keywords: cerebrospinal fluid; cerebrospinal fluid leak; diagnosis; health care; meta-analysis; outcome assessment.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of the selection of studies.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Diagnostic accuracy of included studies [2,11,12,13,14,15,16,17].
Figure 3
Figure 3
The summary receiver operating characteristic curve. Thick curved line (summary receiver operating characteristic curve), thin circular line (95% confidence region), and small circle (summary estimate).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Forest plots of sensitivity (A), specificity (B), negative predictive value (C) and positive predictive value (D) [2,11,12,13,14,15,16,17].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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