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. 2024 Dec;46(12):1983-1991.
doi: 10.1007/s00276-024-03503-w. Epub 2024 Oct 14.

Age-dependent changes in the hyoid bone morphology in children

Burhan Beger  1 , Abdulaziz Yalınkılıç  2 , Mehmet Zeki Erdem  2 , Zülküf Akdemir  3 , Orhan Beger  4
Affiliations

Age-dependent changes in the hyoid bone morphology in children

Burhan Beger et al. Surg Radiol Anat. 2024 Dec.

Abstract

Purpose: This radiologic work aimed to display the alteration in the hyoid bone (HB) morphology in the pediatric population with advancing age.

Methods: This pediatric examination consisted of computed tomography images of 129 subjects (49 males / 80 females) aged 1-17 years.

Results: The anterior-posterior length of HB, the lengths of right and left greater horns, the width and height of HB's body, and the distance between the midpoints of the posterior ends of the greater horns increased with advancing age (p < 0.001), but the angle of the right and left greater horns (p = 0.022) decreased. Four configurations regarding HB shape were observed: Type A (U-shaped HB) in 8.5% (11 HBs) out of 129 children, Type B (B-shaped HB) in 33.3% (43 HBs), Type C (D-shaped HB) in 45% (58 HBs), and Type D (V-shaped HB) in 13.2% (17 HBs). HB shape types correlated with the pediatric age (p < 0.001), but not gender (p = 0.153).

Conclusions: Most of the parameters increased until the postpubescent period, but the angle of the right and left greater horns decreased after the late childhood. Our linear functions representing the growth pattern of HB in children may be useful to estimate HB size.

Keywords: Children; Computed tomography; Hyoid bone; Morphometry.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethical approval: The Clinical Research Ethics Committee of Van Yüzüncü Yıl University approved ethically this examination (approval no: 2024/01–06, date: 12/01/2024). Informed consent: Approval from the Institutional Review Board was obtained and in keeping with the policies for a retrospective review, informed consent was not required. Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

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