Incidence of osseous interclinoid bars in Indian population.

Purpose: Parasellar interclinoid bars are significant in surgical management while dealing with the vascular, neoplastic or traumatic lesions of the central skull base and can also compress the surrounding structures giving rise to various clinical symptoms. The literature cites several case reports but systematic study of these bars has not been done. Therefore this study was carried out to see the incidence of osseous interclinoid bars in Indian population.

Method: Two hundred and fifty adult dried human skulls were studied.

Results: It was observed that the bony bars between the three clinoid processes can be divided into four types (Types I, II, III, IV). Due to the presence of these bars three types of interclinoid foramina were formed. A total incidence of 22% of various types of interclinoid bars was observed, out of which 12% were Type I, 5.6% Type II, 4% type III and only 0.4% were of type IV variety.