Morphological Types of Foramen Magnum
José Aderval Aragão, Raisa de Oliveira Pereira, Rebeca Zelice da Cruz de Moraes, Francisco Prado Reis
Annual Research & Review in Biology · pp. 1372–1378 · Published 10 Jan 2014
10.9734/ARRB/2014/7875Abstract
Introduction: The foramen magnum (FM) is a unique and complex anatomical area located in the central basal region of the occipital bone. It is a three-dimensional opening through which vital structures pass, such as the medulla oblongata and its membranes, the spinal accessory nerve, the vertebral arteries, the anterior and posterior spinal arteries, the tectorial membrane and the alar ligaments. Because of this vital relationship between the FM and its content, it is of great importance to study the morphological types of FM. Findings from such evaluations have essential applications in clinical practice and in surgery. Objective: To determine the incidence of different morphological types of FM. Materials and Methods: 110 FM from dry human crania of known sex and age were analyzed. The specimens belong to the anatomical collections of Tiradentes University (UNIT) and the Metropolitan University of Education and Culture (UNIME). Among these, 66 were male, 44 were female and their ages ranged from 11 to 91 years (mean: 58.01 years). FM morphology was studied using photographic images and with the aid of Corel Draw Photo-Paint X5. Results: Among the 110 FM analyzed, nine morphological types were found: pear-shaped 37.27%, rounded 15.45%, tetragonal 10.91%, biconvex 10.91%, hexagonal 9.09%, oval 5.45%, pentagonal 2.73% and heptagonal 1.82%. In the remaining 6.36% of the FM, it was not possible to define a regular and specific form. Conclusions: Pear-shaped FM predominated, followed by rounded FM. In relation to sex, the tetragonal and biconvex forms occurred five times more frequently in males than in females, while the hexagonal form occurred twice as frequently in females than in males.
Cited by 12
Ramazan Dulkadir, T. Ulcay, Ö. Görgülü · Scientific Reports · 2025
R. Kumar, M. Javia, D. Agrawal · International Journal of Anatomy and Research · 2022
J. A. Aragão, Iapunira Catarina Sant'anna Aragão, Felipe Matheus Sant'anna Aragão · MOJ Anatomy & Physiology · 2020
S. Bhatnagar, J. Iwanaga, T. Decater · Cureus · 2020
J. D. de Lucena, J. V. S. Sanders, H. M. de Brito · Journal of Morphological Sciences · 2019
K. Remya, P. Rathnakar, S. Thi · 2017
M. Zdilla, Michelle L. Russell, Kaitlyn N. Bliss · Journal of Craniovertebral Junction and Spine · 2017
M. Anuradha · 2015
M. Moodley, C. Rennie, L. Lazarus · International Journal of Morphology · 2019
M. Kupczyńska, N. Czubaj, K. Barszcz · Biologia · 2017
Related research
- Morphological Exploration of Lignicolous Macrofungi: Xylaria — shares topic coverage
- The Order Palmariales (Rhodophyta) in the North Pacific Area of Russia: Taxonomic Revision of Halosaccion Kützing and Devaleraea Guiry — shares topic coverage
- Characteristic Variations in Lasiodiplodia theobromae; Pathogen of inflorescence Dieback of Cashew in Growing Ecologies of Nigeria — shares topic coverage
- Effect of Modifications on the Chemical Composition, X-Ray Diffraction Pattern and Scanning Morphology of Starches from Cocoyam (Colocasia esculenta and Xanthosoma sagittifolium) — shares topic coverage
- Taxonomy of Earthworm Species Collected from East Coast of Guyana — shares topic coverage
Article metrics
Real usage data collected on this platform.
0
Page views
0
PDF downloads
0
Outbound clicks
12
Citations
Views by country
Approximate, from request IP at view time — not citizenship or institution. Countries with fewer than 5 views are grouped as "Other".
No views recorded yet.
Traffic sources
Referring site, by host.
No traffic recorded yet.
Views and downloads exclude known bots/crawlers. Citations combines this platform's own DOI-resolved index with each external source's own reported total — see Cited by above for individually listed citing works. Last refreshed 0 seconds ago.