Anatomical changes of the styloid process in a Brazillian subpopulation

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the anatomic variations of the styloid process in computed tomography exams, to classify these variations, and investigate their association with patients’ sex. Materials and Methods: A total of 171 exams were evaluated, 119 of which were from females and 52 from males. The styloid chain was measure bilaterally and then later classified according to its morphology: normal, elongated, segmented and pseudoarticulated. Results: Mean styloid process length was 27.6 mm (27.9 mm on the right side and 27.3 mm on the left), with males showing significantly higher values. As for the frequency of the morphological classification, there was no significant difference for the classification on the right and left side between both sexes. Conclusion: The most frequent morphological type was “segmented”, followed by “normal”, “elongated”, and the less frequent was “pseudoarticulated”.