Morphological study of Pterion in skulls of corpses of the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences (Ditanfor), Lima - Peru 2018

Abstract

Introduction: Pterion is a craniometric point of sutural confluence, observable from a lateral view of the skull; it represents a point of reference and access in the neurological field, as well as in the forensic field and legal medicine due to its morphological differences existing in certain groups of individuals. The present study seeks to establish similarity criteria between the most prevalent morphology within the Lima, Peru population. Methods: 90 adult skulls were examined bilaterally including both pterion points; photographs of both areas were taken, looking for determinaning the most prevalent morphology within the study sample;, the average distances between the ossification center of the pterion and the posterior edge of the zygomatic arch were obtained. The sample was constituted by the skulls of the corpses arrived at the Institute of Forensic Medicine and Forensic Sciences DITANFOR of Lima, Peru in the period of September - November of 2018, using an inclusion criterion of being only skulls of male cadavers of ages between 25 at 75 years, the photographic images were obtained during the necropsy of Law to each one of them. Results: The types of pterion were identified according to the classification of Murphy, 1956; finding the types: sphenoparietal (70%), frontotemporal (24%), starry (6%) and epipheric in none of the cases. It was recorded that the average distance is 40 mm for all cases. Conclusions. The results obtained in the sutural morphology of the pterion and the results of the measurements are of importance for the neurosurgical approach of the skull, registration in legal medicine, forensic odontologic as well as anthropological studies. Key words: Pterion, morphometry, suture, corpses, forensic identification .