The mendosal suture.

PURPOSE: The knowledge regarding the mendosal suture is still on debate in the literature. Though reports of the closure of this childhood suture are variable, a few reports show the presence of the suture in the adults. This study was conducted to determine the occurrence and a better topographic location of the mendosal suture.

METHODS

We used 129 dry skulls for this study. In the specimens, which were determined to have a mendosal suture, the morphometric traits of the mendosal suture and the angle between the mendosal suture line and lambdoidal suture line (α angle) were measured.

RESULTS

We found mendosal suture on 18 specimens, 11 of them were bilateral and 7 were unilateral. The length of these sutures ranged from 10.4 to 23.8 mm on the right side and 10.8 to 31.6 mm on the left side, respectively. The angle between two suture lines ranged from 36 to 68° on the right side and 32 to 75° on the left side.

CONCLUSIONS

We believe that, these data will be of use to clinicians in order to avoid any misinterpretation of the mendosal suture with cranial fractures.