Vestiges of Ossified Spheno-occipital Suture in an Elderly Patient With Down Syndrome and Lateral Skull Base Fracture

BACKGROUND/AIM: Down syndrome (DS) patients often show characteristic changes in the skull, e.g. short cranial base. The synchondroses of the skull base have a significant influence on the shape of the skull. The sphenooccipital synchondrosis (SOS) is the last of the basal synchondroses to ossify. This report is about residual ossification of SOS in an elderly patient with DS.

CASE REPORT: The 65-year-old DS patient was polytraumatized by a fall. In the course of treatment, a purulent otitis externa on the right side was diagnosed, which had developed as a result of the fracture of the fossa glenoidalis. Computed tomograms of the skull base showed the fracture of the mandibular condyle, glenoid fossa and vestiges of SOS.

CONCLUSION: The coincidental finding of vestiges of SOS in an elderly patient with DS raises the question of whether cross-sectional skull base images can show differences in the ossification of SOS between DS patients and a normal population.