Morphometric Analysis Of The Occipital Condyles And Their Correlation With Hypoglossal Canal In Dry Skulls Of South Indians

ABSTRACT

Background: Morphometric analysis of the occipital condyles is essential for craniovertebral junction surgeries.There are no studies done yet on correlation of hypoglossal canal and occipital condyle, therefore the presentstudy is carried out to find differences of parameters of OC in different races and to find out the correlation ofvarious parameters of occipital condyle with orifices of hypoglossal canal.Method: The size, shape and anterior, posterior inter condylar distances of occipital condyles and the locationsof the extracranial and intracranial orifices of the 108 hypoglossal canal were studied in 55 dry skulls.Result: The Mean length, height, width were 21.64±2.97, 11.06±2.2, 6.15±1.44 respectively.Anterior, posteriorinter condylar distances mean were ranged between 13.30-32.93 and 21.46– 46.77 respectively and most commonshape of occipital condyles was oval. Location of hypoglossal canal extra cranially was 3,whereas intra craniallyit was 4 for both right and left sides. There was strong correlation between length of occipital condyle and widthbut the same was not with location of hypoglossal canal.Conclusion: The measurements of occipital condyles were found to have some similarities and some dissimilariesamong different races. These differences could be useful for anthropometric analysis and forensic sciencesstudies. Significant correlation was found between length and width, width and height, height and length.However no correlation could be found between various parameters of occipital condyle and orifices of hypoglossalcanal.