Skull morphology after early craniotomy in patients with premature synostosis of the coronal suture.

The degree of normalization of the shape of the skull was studied in 12 craniosynostosis patients who had been treated with different types of craniotomies in infancy. Three diagnoses were represented: isolated bicoronal synostosis; Crouzon's syndrome; and Apert's syndrome; there were four subjects in each group. Selected cranial dimensions were measured on roentgencephalograms taken in infancy and at follow-up examinations at 2 to 3 years of age. The measurements were compared with control values obtained from patients with cleft lip. Cranial dimensions in the synostosis patients seldom corresponded well with the values of the controls, either before or after surgery. Cranial height, in particular, was increased, especially in patients with Crouzon's or Apert's syndrome. This resulted in modulus values above the control mean for 11 of the 12 patients at the follow-up examinations.