Abstract

Introduction: Variation of Skull base foramina always found to be associated with nervous and vascular malformations manifested by various clinical symptoms. The foramen ovale is an opening present in the posterior part of greater wing of sphenoid which transmits mandibular nerve, accessory meningeal artery, lesser petrosal nerve and emissary vein. The aim of the present study is to do morphometric measurements of the foramen ovale and also to study any variation in shape, number and find out the presence of pterygoalar bar. Materials and Method: The study was conducted on 111 adult dry skulls(222 sides) in Department of Anatomy, ACS Medical college, Chennai. Variations in size , shape and number were noted. Results: The most frequent shape observed was oval (68.46%) followed by D- shaped (15.31%) , round (8.55%) , almond(5.85%) and slit (0.9%). The mean length of foramen ovale found to be 7.57 mm on the right side and 7.39 mm on the left side. The mean width of foramen ovale observed to be 4.28 mm on the right side and 4.57 mm on the left side.Variations such as absent and duplicated foramen ovale, spine projecting from the margin of foramen and pterygoalar bar medial to foramen ovale were also observed. Conclusion: The present study on morphometric measurements of foramen ovale has immense anatomical, clinical, diagnostic and surgical importance in case of fine needle aspiration technique in perineural spread of tumour and in trigeminal neuralgia.

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