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Incidence of persistent metopic suture in Australia: findings from 1034 three-dimensional computed tomography scans

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Abstract

Purpose

To investigate the incidence of persistent, open metopic sutures in contemporary Australians aged 24 months and older.

Methods

Metopic suture evaluation was conducted on retrospective cranial/cervical computed tomography scans of patients aged 24 to 252 months who presented to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide, Australia, between 2010 and 2020. Suture ossification was graded according to Lottering scoring system based on 4 stages, on three-dimensional volume-rendered reconstructions (stage 1: fibrous tissue interface, stage 2: commenced fusion, stage 3: complete fusion and stage 4: obliterated suture). The complete persistent sutures were classified as stage 1. Partially closed sutures were classified into stages 2 and 3, while completely closed sutures were defined as stage 4.

Results

One thousand thirty-four patients (61.2% male and 38.8% female) were included, with a mean age at scan of 66 months. More than half of patients were subject to scanning due to closed-head injuries. The incidence of persistent (completely open) metopic suture was 4.8% (2.3% in males and 2.5% in females). In comparison, a partially closed metopic suture was found in 6.3% of the study cohort, with the remaining sutures located along the metopic suture line, at the glabella, mid-part of the suture, bregma and glabella-bregma areas.

Conclusion

The prevalence of persistent metopic sutures in our study of the Australian population is 4.8%, and it is equally distributed between the genders. The pattern of suture closure can commence from any location along the suture line, which is in contrast to the existing literature.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cleft and Craniofacial South Australia, Women’s and Children’s Hospital, North Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

    Sarut Chaisrisawadisuk, Mark H. Moore & Peter J. Anderson

  2. Department of Medical Imaging, Women’s and Children’s Hospital, North Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

    Sarah Constantine

  3. Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Bond University, Robina, QLD, Australia

    Nicolene Lottering

  4. School of Medicine, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia

    Peter J. Anderson

  5. Division of Plastic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand

    Sarut Chaisrisawadisuk

Authors
  1. Sarut Chaisrisawadisuk
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  2. Sarah Constantine
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  3. Nicolene Lottering
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  4. Mark H. Moore
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  5. Peter J. Anderson
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Contributions

Sarut Chaisrisawadisuk: conception and design, collection and assembly of data, data analysis, manuscript writing. Sarah Constantine: conception and design, collection and assembly of data, data analysis. Nicolene Lottering: conception and design, collection and assembly of data, manuscript writing. Mark H. Moore: conception and design, manuscript writing. Peter J. Anderson: conception and design, data analysis, final approval of manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sarut Chaisrisawadisuk.

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Ethics approval

The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Women’s and Children’s Health Network Human Research Ethics Committee (Audit 838A).

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The authors report that there are no conflicts of interest related to the present work.

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Chaisrisawadisuk, S., Constantine, S., Lottering, N. et al. Incidence of persistent metopic suture in Australia: findings from 1034 three-dimensional computed tomography scans. Childs Nerv Syst 37, 3871–3879 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00381-021-05313-6

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