hello all dr. Alsup here and we are getting to talk about one of my all-time favorite things
sutures these a moveable fibrous joints of the skull are literally all over the place basically
anywhere where you have two bones meet in the skull we are not going through all of them but
we have quite a few to get through so let's get started alright my first recommendation
for anytime you look at an image particularly in an assessment situation like the practical is to
try to figure out what view you are looking at so here we are looking at a superior view or the
top of the skull this is going to be anterior and this will be posterior next when trying
to better identify osteological structures I like to identify which bones I can actually see before
breaking down the structures so let's ID the bones here so the most anterior bone is going
to be the frontal and you see no suture kind of going down the midline here so you know you're
looking at that unpaired frontal bone next you can see the paired parietal bones and then you can see
a little peek of the occipital bone back here in the posterior region now where these bones meet
you will have joints and these joints are referred to as sutures first suture we will discuss is the
coronal suture which is sometimes referred to as the frontal suture and it's going to be the
meeting point between the frontal bone and the paired parietal bones so here's your coronal
suture think of it as kind of where a tiara would sit on your head all right the suture here kind
of running down the midline will be the sagittal suture and it's going to be between the paired
parietal bones now I hope you have noticed that the coronal and sagittal terms are also used in
anatomical plane terminology so the coronal plane is that vertical plane that passes longitudinally
through the body and can divide into anterior and posterior halves whereas the sagittal plane
would divide the body into right and left portions so because I'm an osteologist
in background I often go back to remembering where these sutures are located when thinking
about the plains you may work the opposite way whatever works but it is nice to have multiple
ways to think through these terminologies alright so back to the sutures between the
parietal bone or parietal bones excuse me and the occipital bone is this complex landed or
lambdoidal suture alright let's look at some of these from a different view here we are looking
at a posterior view of the cranium let's ID the bones you have your two parietal bones here and
you have a much better view of the occipital bone or that posterior most bone here which makes sense
you can see a much clearer view of the land oil suture and its complexities between the parietal
bones in the occipital and then of course you have that sagittal suture between the parietal
bones alright let's move to a lateral view of the skull you can see quite a few more bones
here which makes sense because you have some of the facial bones in this region and where those
bones are going to meet you'll also have sutures so this gets established that this is and terior
here and posterior over here that makes sense anterior you're gonna have the orbits and the
teeth and let's ID some of the bones here is your frontal bone here is the left parietal bone the
occipital bone is back here and let's ID a few new bones that we haven't talked about in this
session yet here is the temporal bone that fairly nondescript portion here and then fairly complex
portion over here you have a little bit of the sphenoid bone and here is the zygomatic bone
often colloquially referred to as the cheek bone now for the sutures we have already identified in
other views here is that coronal suture between the front to bone in the parietal bone and you
can see some at the landed suture here between the parietal bone and the occipital bone now
mainly between the parietal bone and the temporal bone you will have the squamous suture this is the
squamous suture you can see that this suture is not as complex as some of the other ones or not
as squiggly as the others I think that's a nice way to identify that you will also have another
squamous suture the right squamous suture on the other side where the sphenoid meets the
temporal bone or the squamous suture is this sphenosquamous suture and lastly the small suture here
between the zygomatic bone and the frontal bone is going to be the zygomaticofrontal suture so
a very long name for a very small suture all right last view which is a full anterior view
of the skull let's identify the bones you can see here here is that large frontal bone that
is forming the bulk of the forehead region you had the two zygomatic bones here or your cheek
bones these two small bones that are going to form the bridge of the nose are your nasal
bones and lastly these large bones that how's your maxillary or upper teeth are going to be
your maxillary bones or your maxilla so where the maxilla meets the zygomatic is going to be
the zygomaticomaxillary suture so you'll have one over here on this side as well and where the
frontal bone meets the paired nasal bones you will have the fret tone nasal suture alright so that is
enough suture fun for now once you get down the bone identification suture identification usually
isn't so bad alright as always please reach out to me if you have any questions and we will talk soon