PART 2 — SKULL

<aside> 📚

Study use: Rapid anatomy, trauma, radiology, pediatrics, neurosurgery, and forensic revision. Management is intentionally concise and should be interpreted with the injury pattern, neurologic status, imaging, and patient age.

</aside>

<aside> 🚦

Priority Guide: 🔴 Core / Must Know | 🟠 Important | 🟡 Additional

</aside>

🎯 High-Yield Overview

• Pterion: frontal + parietal + squamous temporal + greater wing of sphenoid; anterior branch of the middle meningeal artery lies deep to it.
• Temporal blow → pterion fracture → middle meningeal artery injury → epidural hematoma; MMA is a branch of the maxillary artery and enters via foramen spinosum.
• Squamous suture: overlapping temporal–parietal junction on lateral skull.
• Linear/fissured fracture: traditional most-common skull-fracture answer; depressed fracture: inward displacement + palpable step deformity.
• Basilar fracture: raccoon eyes, Battle sign, CSF rhinorrhea/otorrhea, hemotympanum; avoid blind nasal instrumentation when significant skull-base injury is suspected.
• Craniosynostosis: sagittal → scaphocephaly; metopic → trigonocephaly; bilateral coronal → brachycephaly.
• Fontanelles: posterior closes about 1–2 months; anterior about 12–18 months.
• Skull X-ray clues: punched-out → multiple myeloma; salt-and-pepper → hyperparathyroidism; cotton-wool → Paget disease; marble-bone → osteopetrosis.
• Burr hole: smooth circular postoperative skull defect.

1. SKULL SUTURES, LANDMARKS & CRANIAL FORAMINA

2. PTERION, MIDDLE MENINGEAL ARTERY & EPIDURAL HEMATOMA

3. SKULL FRACTURES & BURR-HOLE CLUES

4. DEVELOPMENTAL & PEDIATRIC SKULL DISORDERS

5. FONTANELLES

6. CLASSIC SKULL RADIOLOGY & BONE-DISEASE CLUES

7. CLASSIC FORENSIC SKULL TEACHING