Sternal foramena in man

Abstract

The prevalence, location, size, race, and sex predilection of foramena in the sternum of 324 decedents examined using a cabinet x-ray system is reported. A total of 25 cadavers were found to possess such a defect, always in the lower sternal body, a prevalence of 7.7%. These defects, or foramena, were always single, usually oval to circular and ranged in diameter from 3 to 18 mm. Such foramena were never found in individuals younger than 20 years of age, but occurred at all later ages to the extremes of life (oldest-88 years) and were about twice as common in men as in women, occurring in 9.6% and 4.3%, respectively. These foramena have no recognized clinical or functional significance. Rarely reported in clinical material, only briefly noted in most standard anatomy texts, forensic anthropology texts and mentioned not at all in pathology textbooks, these common structural anomalies could potentially cause confusion to the unexperienced examiner of human osseous remains.

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