Morphometric Study of Pterion in Adult Dry Skulls in Dakshina Kannada District, Karnataka State, India.

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The objectives of the present study were to determine the type of the pterion in the dry human skulls of Dakshina Kannada district of Southern India and to study its topography. Materials and Methods: The present study included 32 adult human skulls of unknown gender. The pterions of both the right and left sides were studied. Results: The present study observed all the 4 types of pterion. Among them, Spheno-parietal type was higher in frequency. This type was found on right side 25 (78.1%) and left side 28 (87.5%) skulls. The distance between the centres of pterion to the midpoint of zygomatic arch (P-ZA) was 40.08±0.46 mm on the right side of the skull, whereas on left side of the skull it was 39.9±0.17 mm. Distance between the centre of pterion to the posterolateral aspect of fronto-zygomatic suture (P-FZ) on right side of the skull was 30.37±0.44 mm and it was 29.53±0.26 mm on the left side. Conclusion: We believe that the present study has provided the additional information about the morphology and morphometry of pterion, which is important to the neurosurgical and radiological literature.