Clinical review highlights rising diagnosis rates and surgical interventions in infants with metopic synostosis, suggesting a critical reassessment of surgical thresholds and long-term outcomes.
The incidence of synostosis has been noted to have increased substantially over the past several decades, and this has been most widely reported for metopic synostosis, with conservative reports of a 20% increase and others reporting much more significant changes. 1 The most rational explanation for this phenomenon, after millions of years of evolution in skull development, is perhaps not a true change in incidence but a lower threshold for establishing the diagnosis and recommending surgery than before the widespread use of 3-dimensional computed tomography scans and the proliferation of craniofacial surgery centers.However, surgical procedures for this condition, even minimally invasive operations, are a significant event for babies and their families, and it is incumbent on the field of craniofacial surgery to understand who truly requires surgery based on the degree of severity of the condition and how our interventions affect long-term +
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Proctor et al. (2026) studied this question.
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