Study on Cephalic Index and its importance in early infant life.

Abstract

Background: Cephalic index, also known as the index of breadth or cranial index, is one of the major parameters that help to distinguish between the different races of humans. The dimensions of the human body are affected by biological, ecological, geographical, sex, racial, and age factors. The Cranial indexclassified into three broad categories: dolichocephalic, mesaticephalic and brachycephalic. The present study was conducted to findout cephaluc index of adult day skulls.

Materials and Methods: We have conducted this study with 72 adult dry skulls. All the skulls were undrrgone for proper examination carefully and we have separted skulls according to gender 52 skulls as male and 20 skulls as female.  We have studied for the craniometric analysis. We have not included damgaed skulls in our study, only fine and hygenic condition skulls were included.

Results: The results were, maximum cranial index was 84.12mm and 72.46mm was minimum. The mean cranial index was 84.72mm and 73.52mm was minimum. The cranial index was 79.47+4.19mm, in males it was 80.12+3.32mm and 76.34+3.42mm in females.

Conclusion: The cephalic index is a useful and indispensable tool used for assessing skull shape in adults as well as in children, especially for pre-and postoperative correction of skull deformations. Knowledge of cranial parameters and cranial index is essential in evaluating age, gender, and racial differences in clinical applications and forensic applications.