Case Report


Metopism: An anatomical variant that the physician should take into account

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1 Cabinet KOSMA, Oaxaca, C.P. 71244, Mexico

2 Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, C.P. 04510, Mexico

3 Department of Innovation in Human Biological Material and Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, C.P. 04510, Mexico

Address correspondence to:

Manuel Angeles-Castellanos

Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, C.P. 04510,

Mexico

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Article ID: 101451Z01MY2024

doi: 10.5348/101451Z01MY2024CR

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How to cite this article

Vega YM, Rojas-Granados A, Arellano-Rivera E, Martínez-Díazaa A, Méndez OL, Angeles-Castellanos M. Metopism: An anatomical variant that the physician should take into account. Int J Case Rep Images 2024;15(1):82–86.

ABSTRACT


Introduction: During childhood these sutures close, forming the characteristic sutures of the skull, one of these is the frontal suture, which joins the two frontal bones perfectly, simulating a single frontal bone. However, this suture can persist into adulthood, giving an anatomical variant known as metopism.

Case Report: A 19-year-old Mexican male presented with high-energy trauma related to a traffic accident while riding a motorcycle without wearing a safety helmet. A simple skull computed tomography (CT) was considered due to moderate risk factors for traumatic brain injury (TBI), based on the Master’s classification, progressive headache, presence of hematoma, facial injuries. When performing the simple skull tomography, persistence of the metopic suture was observed.

Conclusion: Metopism has generally been reported as a postmortem finding in population studies aimed at its search. This report has special attention because it was identified as a differential diagnosis of a skull fracture following a traumatic brain injury. The important finding that differentiates metopic suture from a fracture is the presence of serrated and sclerotic edges. A persistent metopic suture can be easily diagnosed by an anteriorposterior radiograph.

Keywords: Anatomical variant, Fracture, Metopic suture, Skull

SUPPORTING INFORMATION


Acknowledgments

This study was supported by grants PAPIME-UNAM: PE202123 to Adelina Rojas-Granados and 83/2023 FacMed-UNAM to Manuel Angeles-Castellanos.

Author Contributions

Yamili Morales Vega - Acquisition of data, Analysis of data, Revising it critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published

Adelina Rojas-Granados - Analysis of data, Drafting the article, Revising it critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published

Esteban Arellano-Rivera - Analysis of data, Revising it critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published

Aurelia Martínez-Díazaa - Analysis of data, Drafting the article, Final approval of the version to be published

Octavio Lescas Méndez - Substantial contributions to conception and design, Acquisition of data, Revising it critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published

Manuel Angeles-Castellanos - Substantial contributions to conception and design, Analysis of data, Revising it critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published

Guarantor of Submission

The corresponding author is the guarantor of submission.

Source of Support

None

Consent Statement

Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this article.

Data Availability

All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.

Conflict of Interest

Authors declare no conflict of interest.

Copyright

© 2024 Morales Vega Yamili et al. This article is distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original author(s) and original publisher are properly credited. Please see the copyright policy on the journal website for more information.