ultrasound anterior fontelle

hedi · Silver Member Joined: 21 Oct 2000 Posts: 273

My niece had horrible headaches as an adolescent and hers stemmed from an exostosis on the base of her skull near or on the occipital bone. Once she had it removed her headaches improved, but surgery did not remove any part of her skull whatsoever. The doc said that it had a very slight tendency to grow back, but it was flat and did not irritate the muscle group that comes up the back of the head. I did some research because of this and I saw hers ultrasound and I would like to know about cranial fusion more and anterior and posterior fontanelle. I am very worried about her and I’ll appreciate any information.

rivest · Newbie Joined: 17 Mar 2005 Posts: 18

There was some confusion about when the fontanelles and cranial sutures in the skull are meant to fuse, however cranial suture fusion is a long process, starting at a few months, and finishing around 50 years old. Craniostynoses is a condition where there is premature fusion of the cranial sutures resulting in disproportionate growth of the cranial bones and as a consequence the growth of the facial bones and when a suture is fused there is no growth in a plane perpendicular to the line of the suture. In this case brain growth induces the osteogenesis of the skull and this occurs in a homogeneous and symmetrical manner. The skull will grow rapidly from birth to about 7th year but the greater part of the increase of its cranial part occurs during the first year owing to the rapidity of the growth in that period of the brain. The brain reaches its max growth at about 2 years of age. And about the anterior and posterior fontanelle that you asked, well there are six fontanelles at the edges of the parietal bones, two anterolateral and posterolateral as well as anterior and posterior fontanelle. The posterior and anterolateral fontanelles are obliterated within 2-3 months after birth. The posterolateral fontanelle is usually closed about the end of the 1st year and the anterior fontanelle about the middle of the 2nd year.

ultrasound anterior fontelle

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