Investigation of sphenoid spine morphometry for skull base surgery and relation to foramen spinosum localization

Our study aimed to investigate the sphenoid spine morphological characterization, as well as the distances to important surgical points and its relation to foramen spinosum localization. On a total of 65 skulls, the distances of the sphenoid spine to various surgically important anatomical landmarks were measured from both the right and left sides. The length of the sphenoid spine was measured and classified morphologically. Localization of the foramen spinosum relation to the sphenoid spine was evaluated. The sphenoid spine length was statistically different which was found to be 6.71±1.97 and 6.14±1.93 on the right and left sides, respectively (p=0.027). The most commonly encountered shape of the sphenoid spine on both sides was quadrangular, followed by spine shape. The foramen spinosum was most frequently located anteromedially and least frequently located anterolaterally in relation to the sphenoid spine. In our study, it was determined that the localization of the foramen spinosum is associated with the shape of the sphenoid spine, on both the right (p=0.012) and left (p=0.016) sides. Our study provides morphometric data on the sphenoid spine and reports the association between the localization of the foramen spinosum and the type of sphenoid spine.