Study of pterion and asterion in adult human skulls of north Gujarat region

Abstract

Introduction: The floor of the temporal fossa is bounded superiorly by the frontal and parietal bones and inferiorly by the greater wing of the sphenoid and squamous part of the temporal bone. All four bones of one side meet at a around H-shaped sutural junction known as Pterion. Asterion found at the junction of the lambdoid, occipitomastoid and parietomastoid sutures. Materials and Methods: 110 dry human adult aged skull of unknown sex without any gross pathology or abnormality were studied. Sutural pattern of the pterion was observed on both sides of each skull. The sutural pattern of pterion was classified as per Murphy’s criteria, into 4 types – sphenoparietal, frontotemporal, epipteric or stellate. On both sides of each skull, the sutural pattern of the asterion was classified into type I and type II. Result: Sphenoparietal was the most common type of pterion observed, 80.9% of total pterion. Epipteric was the least common type of pterion observed, 8.18% of total pterion. Frontotemporal was not observed in any skull. Sphenoparital, stellate and epipteric type of pterion shows bilateral symmetry. Most common type of asterion observed to be type II, found in 91.18% of total asterion. Bilateral symmetry only found in type II asterion. Conclusion: Observations of our study may be applicable with other commonly used method like radiological analysis for better prediction of different type of sutural morphology. Knowledge of sutural morphology may helpful for better surgical safety and efficacy. Keywords: Pterion, Asterion, Skull, Suture.