Anthropometry of the pituitary fossa in normal adult jaws of the Niger Delta in Nigeria

Abstract

The pituitary fossa (Sella Turcica) has been studied by various workers in different populations and racial and regional variations of the normal sella noted. This study therefore was carried out to determine the radiological dimensions of the pituitary fossa in normal adult of the Ijaws of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. A total of 440 normal radiographs of the lateral view of the skull comprising 220 males and 220 females were utilized. The radiographs were obtained randomly from the Radiology Departments of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, the Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital and Kaliya Specialist Diagnostics all in Port Harcourt Nigeria. The mean length of the sella was found to be 10.8 + 1.7 mm while the mean depth was 8.2 + 1.6 mm. The males had greater sella sizes than the females though not significant (P> 0.05). The sella size of the Ijaws when compared to the Caucasian values was lager though the difference was also not significant (P> 0.05).