Abstract
Purpose
The occipital bone is located on the boundary between the membranous and cartilage bones and contains a wide variety of accessory sutures. In this study, we describe the age distribution of pediatric patients who are less than 2 years of age with occipital cranial sutures using a three-dimensional computed tomography (3D-CT).
Methods
A total of 167 consecutive patients who are less than 2 years of age and underwent computed tomography for head trauma were included in this study.
Results
Based on the results of this study, various types of sutures were observed among the pediatric participants. In particular, superior median fissures, mendosal sutures, other interparietal segment’s accessory sutures, and interparietal sutures were noted in 21%, 35%, 9%, and 6% of the participants, respectively. Additionally, Wormian bones within the lambdoid suture were noted in 32% of the patients. The median age of children with superior median fissure and mendosal suture was 0 month. Meanwhile, superior median fissure was not observed among children older than 5 months of age. In this population, 13 patients (8%) were found to have skull fracture.
Conclusions
Knowledge of the normal cranial anatomy and developmental patterns of cranial sutures is crucial in the evaluation of questionable fractures in the occipital region. A combination of 3D-CT and axial bone window imaging is useful in differentiating normal structures from pathological changes in the cranium.
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We sincerely thank Enago for the English language editing.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. AM prepared the materials and collected the data. AM and TE wrote the first draft of the manuscript, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. TI and AM critically supervised the manuscript. Finally, all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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The study was approved by the ethics committee of Ibaraki Children’s Hospital (1IRB-53).
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Muroi, A., Enomoto, T., Ihara, S. et al. Developmental changes in the occipital cranial sutures of children less than 2 years of age. Childs Nerv Syst 37, 567–572 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00381-020-04844-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00381-020-04844-8