Morphometric Study Of Thyroid Cartilages In Adults By Dissection Method

ABSTRACT

Background: Morphometrical evaluation of the larynx has always been interesting for both morphologists andthe physicians. Accurate anatomic knowledge of laryngeal cartilage is essential in diagnostic and therapeuticprocedures in the field of laryngology.Aim: To study morphometric features of thyroid cartilage in adult human cadavers and also to correlate themeasurements of the thyroid cartilage between male and female.Materials and Methods: Thyroid cartilages from 62 cases (Male 31, Female 31) of postmortem in the departmentof Forensic medicine, MMC and RI, Mysore were studied. A total of seven parameters were measured on eachthyroid cartilage and the observations were tabulated and compared between both sexes.Results: All parameters of Thyroid cartilage were more in males compared to females except thyroid angle whichwas more in females. The height of right thyroid lamina was equal to the height of left thyroid lamina in bothmales and females. Similarly the Antero- posterior distance of right thyroid lamina was equal to Antero -posterior distance of left thyroid lamina in both sexes.Conclusion: Considerable gender and race related differences in many of the geometric measurements of thethyroid cartilage were observed in the study. These morphological differences have important clinical andsurgical implications. They are critical to the accurate placement of needles and probes in laryngeal electromyography and vocal cord injection, medialization procedures, in performing supraglottic laryngectomy, aswell as precise planning of laryngeal framework surgery.