Head and Brain Malformations

Khoi D. Than M.D.

The most relevant head malformation is a condition called craniosynostosis, or the premature fusion of one or more of the head's sutures. The human head is composed of multiple bones held together by several sutures, namely the metopic, coronal, sagittal, and lambdoid sutures. Simple craniosynostosis is when only one suture is involved, while compound craniosynostosis involves two or more sutures. The most common suture affected is the sagittal suture (50 percent of cases), followed by the coronal suture (25 percent), and metopic suture (10 percent). Lambdoid synostosis is very rare, with an incidence of 3 per 100,000 births. The overall prevalence of craniosynostosis is approximately 1 per 2,000 births, or 0.05 percent of children. One-fifth of craniosynostosis cases occur as one of more than 150 different syndromes, while the remainder occur as an isolated, nonsyndromic condition. The etiology of craniosynostosis is unknown. Several risk ...

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