MORPHOLOGICAL STUDY OF WORMIAN BONES IN DRIED HUMAN SKULLS

Abstract

Background: Wormian bones may be defined as a those accidental bones found in the cranium having no regular relation to their normal ossification centre. They are assocated with cranial and central nervous system abnormalities. Knowledge of these bones is important for anthropo-logists, forensic experts, radiologists, orthopedic and neurosurgeons to avoid misleading for multiple fractures of the skull.

Materials and Methods: Adult dry human skulls (n= 27) of unknown age and sex availablein the Department of Anatomy, Govt. Medical College, Surat were included in the study.

Result: Overall incidence of wormian bone was 44.4%. They occurred more frequently at lambdoid suture (48.14%).Wormian bones were also presentat asterion (18.5%), along the coronal suture (0.03%), along the parito-temporal suture (0.07%), along the occipito-mastoid suture (0.03%),andat pterion (0.03 %). Wormain bones were found 48.1% on left half of skull and 37.03% on right half of skull.

Conclusion: The Wormian bones were more frequent at the lambdoid suture. The clinical importances of these variant bones were emphasized with relevant review of literature.