RESUMO
Background: Sutural bones are supranumary bones occurring along the sutures and completely surrounded bysutures of the skull. Their number, morphology and location vary in skulls. The knowledge of these bones isimperative in surgery, medicolegal cases involving child abuse or fracture of skulls and for anthropologicidentification of human populations. The studies on sutural bones have traditionally been based on the studiesof dry calvaria which are unreliable for the homogeneity of the population studied. Hence, this pilot study wasundertaken to evaluate the feasibility of 3D volume rendering of CT scan data for study of sutural bones.Method: 3D volume rendering from 64-slice CT scan data from 64 patients was studied for incidence andlocation of occurrence of sutural bones.Results: Overall incidence of sutural bone occurrence was found to be 29.69%. The most common sites forsutural bones, in descending order of occurrence, were found to be parieto-occipital suture, asterion, andlambda.Conclusion: Sutural bone studies in concurrent populations such as this one are rare. The incidence of suturalbones in this study is similar to what another study on concurrent populations has reported. However, locationof occurrence of sutural bones observed in this study was similar to all other sutural bone studies includingthose on dry skulls pointing to probable universality of this statistic. This preliminary study establishes the useof 3D volume rendering of CT scan data to be a valid means to acquire sutural bone data.