Bilateral caroticoclinoid and absent mental foramen: rare variations of cranial base and lower jaw

Abstract

The human skull is a complex structure, which at birth is made up of 44 separate bony elements. Gross skull morphology and variations occurring in its important foramina (anomalous presence, absence, agenesis or multiplication) represent an interesting field of research, in order to achieve better comprehension of the embryological development of cranio-facial skeleton and the fate of its neuro-vascular content. Such anomalies may be asymptomatic in some cases while in others, they may carry important medical implications such as occurrence of atypical motor syndromes and influence the outcomes of modern neurosurgery. This case reports of an adult Asian female’s dry skull that presented with two extremely rare foramen variations; the ‘presence of bilateral caroticoclinoid foramen’ and the ‘bilateral absence of mental foramen’. To the best of author’s knowledge, no similar case with co-existence of both variants in the same skull has been cited before in medical literature. This merits it’s reporting as ostial variations of the cranial base and lower jaw hold diagnostic, surgical and developmental relevance for practicing clinicians, biological anthropologists and embryologists.