Growth pattern of laryngeal cartilages in human foetuses - An analysis

With the advent of super-speciality of foetal therapy and emergence of various invasive and non invasive approaches aimed at correction of foetal defects, the developmental and topographical anatomy along with growth in dimension of the organ and attainment of characteristic morphology gains significance. The greater bulk of available information is based on animal experimentation. Since the data on human foetuses would be more reliable and befitting the clinical needs, this study is a sincere attempt to put forward the inference derived on growth rate and pattern of laryngeal cartilages during the intra uterine life. The study has been done on 31 foetuses their intrauterine life being 4^th month onwards. The larynx of these foetuses were dissected out and relevant measurements made to derive the growth rate which has been shown to follow a steady course with a spurt in the 4^th to 5^th month period of IUL.