International Journal of Medical Toxicology & Legal Medicine

The morphology and unique pattern of the frontal sinus has been used for identification of unknown bodies in forensic practice. The craniomatric study of frontal sinus with the help of 3D-CT scan is the latest technique, which has made it more convenient. This study was carried out to establish usability of CT images of frontal sinuses for the purpose of unidentified human skeleton remains. This prospective multicenter study was conducted at four different medical colleges of Rajasthan, where dry human skulls were collected from the department of anatomy and forensic medicine to study the frontal sinus morphology by a high resolution 3D-CT scanner. The height, width, depth and volume of Frontal sinus is more in male than in female dry crania and hence the mean volume of frontal sinus in male dry crania was 6.22±1.66 cc and in female dry cranial is 5.50±2.82 cc. Therefore, the volumetric measurement of the frontal sinus by 3D-CT Scan imaging can help in affixing the gender of the dry crania. There was considerable variations in the shape, capacity and asymmetry of frontal sinus, which shows that the frontal sinuses are having morphological variations and can be used for the purpose of forensic identification. The present study shows that CT Scanning is a better technique to investigate the application of measurements of the paranasal sinus as a tool for medico-legal age and gender examination in day to day practice.