Study of skull sutures as a tool for identification

ABSTRACT

The aim of the present work was to study the possibility of using the patternsof skull vault sutures as a tool for a positive personal identification. Itwas carried out on 100 human Egyptian skulls. They were photographed andexamined to determine the different patterns of skull vault sutures [coronal,sagittal and lambdoid sutures]. A method of describing these patterns on theectocranial surface of the skull was adopted and based on dividing each sutureinto subdivisions and describing the pattern found in each one. Skullradiographs [lateral and posteroanterior views] of 150 adult Egyptianindividuals of both sexes were also included in the study to determine thedifferent patterns of skull vault sutures recorded incidentally in routinediagnostic skull radiographs. The results showed that the suture patterns ofskull vaults were highly individualistic. Thus, no two skulls can ever havean identical suture patterns. This is of an utmost medicolegal importance inidentification, if only the suture patterns were recorded during life throughX-ray radiography for comparison