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Metopism: Anatomical, Clinical and Surgical Aspects

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The Sutures of the Skull

Abstract

The metopic suture is a dentate type of suture traveling from the nasion to bregma. The suture is located almost in the middle of the two frontal bones and usually closes in the first or second year of life. The presence of a complete metopic suture in the adult cranium is called 'metopism'. The frequency of metopism shows variablity among geographic populations and sexes. The frequency of metopism is reported as 7–10% in Europeans, 4–5 % in Asians, 1% in Africans, and 1% in Australians, but some recent studies show there is different upper and lower limits when the populations are evaluated individually. While the prevalence of metopism among females has been reported to be between 0.32% and 23.6 %, the prevalence among males has ben reported to range from 1.56% to 17.8%. The existence of this suture in adult skulls is due to genetic influences. Metopism has anthropological, developmental, and clinical significances.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, Akdeniz University Medicine Faculty, Antalya, Turkey

    Hakan Çakın & Saim Kazan

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  1. Hakan Çakın
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  2. Saim Kazan
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Medicine, Department of Neurosurgery, Aydın Adnan Menderes University, Efeler, Aydin, Turkey

    Mehmet Turgut

  2. Departments of Neurosurgery, Neurology, Surgery, and Structural and Cellular Biology, Tulane University School of Medicine, Center for Clinical Neurosciences, New Orleans, LA, USA

    R. Shane Tubbs

  3. Department of Radiology, Yüksek İhtisas University, Ankara, Turkey

    Ahmet T. Turgut

  4. Department of Neurosurgery, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA

    Aaron S. Dumont

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Çakın, H., Kazan, S. (2021). Metopism: Anatomical, Clinical and Surgical Aspects. In: Turgut, M., Tubbs, R.S., Turgut, A.T., Dumont, A.S. (eds) The Sutures of the Skull. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72338-5_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72338-5_9

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-72338-5

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