Fusion of Skull Vault Sutures in Relation to Age – A Cross SECTIONAL Postmortem Study Done in 3 I Rd , 4 Th & 5 Th Decades of Life at KLES Prabhakar Kore Hospital and MRC, Belgaum

Abstract

Background and Objectives ABSTRACT Cranial suture closure has been used since the 16 iii th century, and since that time there has been considerable debate about its applicability and reliability in age estimation. This study is intended to find out the pattern of cranial vault suture closure with respect to age in 3 Methods rd , 4 th and 5 th decades of life. In this study, all the cases brought for post-mortem examination at mortuary of KLEs PRABHAKAR KORE HOSPITAL AND MRC, BELGAUM between 01-11- 2008 to 31-10-2009 has been studied. Results In our study, out of 70 cases there were 16 females and 54 males. When comparison between male and female subjects were made, closure was earlier in females ( Mean 6.97 vs. 4.94 in case of endo cranial suture closure & 5.42 vs. 2.66 in case of ecto cranial suture closure ) . Ectocranial and Endocranial suture components were compared through sagittal, right & left coronal, right & left lambdoid sutures. This shows endocranial suture closure occurs early compared to ectocranial suture closure. When comparison was made between sagittal, coronal and lambdoid suture, overall coronal suture closes early followed by sagittal and lambdoid respectively. Conclusions and Interpretation In the present study we tried the possibilities for suture closure to contribute to one of the essential foundations of Paleodemography: age estimation. Our analyses strengthen the view that, there is a significant relationship between suture closure and age.