Craniotopographic characteristics of the distances between the foramina of the middle cranial fossa taking into account the human craniotype

Annotation. It is known that within the middle cranial fossa there are rotundum, ovale and spinosum foramina through which important vessels and nerves pass. That is why it is important for surgeons not to damage them during surgery. The aim of the work was to establish the craniotopographic characteristics of the distances between the foramens of the middle cranial fossa of a mature person depending on the extreme types of skull structure. The morphometric study was performed on 50 CT scans of the adult human head using the anatomical imaging system Anatomage table, with the installed program Launching Table 6.0 Application and 50 bone preparations of the skull of adults in standard craniological methods using a common set of measuring instruments. In our study, craniometry was performed between the rotundum, ovale and spinosum foramina of the middle cranial fossa. Statistical processing of the obtained digital material was performed by the variation-statistical method with the determination of the Mann-Whitney criterion (p<0.05). The performed morphometry showed there is a slight asymmetry of the distances between the foramens of the left and right parts of the middle cranial fossa. The study also showed that there is no significant difference in the average size between the foramens in the left and right halves of the middle cranial fossa depending on the extreme types of skull. The length between the foramina of the same name (rotundum, ovale and spinosum) is characterized by a gradual increase in parameters from dolichocranes to brachycranes, combined with an increase in latitudinal size in brachycranes, average values in mesocranes and a decrease in transverse parameters in dolichocranes. The obtained results complement the existing information on craniotopographic and craniometric features of the middle cranial fossa and can be the basis for further research.