[Study of the normality of the orbito-naso-frontal bandeau].

Introduction: Craniosynostoses are cranio-facial malformations affecting about 1/2100 newborns in France. The involvement of anterior sutures (coronal and metopic) leads to orbito-frontal deformities. The treatment calls upon surgery the goal being, on an esthetic point of view, to restore a normal anatomy. The purpose of our work was to establish if some facial and/or frontal measures easy to perform on a CT are correlated to the global shape of the normal orbito-naso-frontal bandeau (ONFB).

Material And Method: Cranial CTs of 123 consecutive non-malformed children aged between 4 and 12 months were selected in the database of Department of Radiology of the University Hospital of Besançon - France. The CTs were all relocated by rigid transformation in an orthonormal coordinate system. On each of the 123 CTs, 21 reproducible measures representative of the global shape of the ONFB were made. Statistical analyses of these measures were achieved, considering age and gender, in order to determine the correlation between each measure and the ONFB shape.

Results: The only measure statistically correlated to the ONFB shape was the distance between the fronto-zygomatic sutures (FZD). The FZD was independent from age (in an interval of 4 months) and from gender. The 20 other measures did not show any correlation with age or gender.

Discussion: The FZD allows in itself to determine the ONFB global shape. This measure, easily available on a CT, can help the surgeon to perform a customized reshaping of the ONFB. The development of a surgical template using this measure is ongoing.