Vinyon "N" as dural substitute and its use in other neurosurgical conditions.

The search for a material to be utilized as dural substitute has been a continuous one for the last six decades. Many materials have been tried, including the different metals, various biological tissues, and plant derivatives. Recently, synthetic products have been utilized as dural substitute. Among these, Vinyon "N" (Teng and Feigin, 1955), Teflon (Teng, unpublished data), and Orlon* (Huertas, 1955) have shown the most promising results, producing only minimal tissue reaction when buried intracranially in experimental animals. Since publication of the results obtained in experimental monkeys, Vinyon "N" has been used in 40 clinical cases with various neurosurgical conditions, which included its use as (1) dural substitute in repairs of dural defects produced by surgery, trauma, or tumour; (2) bone lining, in the prevention of bone reunion in craniostenosis; and (3) nerve wrap after neurolysis in cicatrization (Table I).