Radiology, Vol 196, 747-756, Copyright © 1995 by Radiological Society of North America

ARTICLES

Suture closure in the human chondrocranium: CT assessment

LA Madeline and AD Elster
Department of Radiology, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27157-1022, USA.

PURPOSE: To chronicle the development of ossification centers, sutures, and synchondroses in the chondrocranium throughout childhood by using computed tomography (CT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred eighty- nine children (age range, newborn to 18 years; median age, 4.0 years) without skull base deformity were referred for cranial CT. The closure of 18 sutures and synchondroses was graded. RESULTS: In the occipital bone at birth, six components were identified. The Kerckring ossicle rapidly fused to the supraoccipital bone within the 1st month. At age 1- 3 years, the posterior and anterior intraoccipital synchondroses began to fuse. The occipitomastoidal, petro-occipital, and spheno-occipital synchondroses remained partially open into the teenage years. In the sphenoid bone at birth, 13 ossification centers were identified; most assimilated into the sphenoidal body during the first 2 years. Pneumatization of the sphenoid sinus appeared at age 1-2 years and advanced posteriorly over the next 3-5 years. CONCLUSION: The complex process of skull base development is chronicled, which provides CT standards for judgment of the patterns and timing of sutural or synchondrosal closure.

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