Variant Morphology of the Crista Galli in Adult Nigerians: A CT Study

The crista galli is an important landmark during endoscopic sinus and neurosurgical procedures. The pneumatization of the crista galli may lead to chronic frontal sinusitis and mucocele formation that require surgical treatment. This study aimed to determine the morphological variants of the crista galli in adult Nigerians. 

Following the ethical approval, this retrospective study was carried out at the Radiology Department of a tertiary hospital in Nigeria. The archived computed tomography images of 336 adult patients aged 20 years and above were evaluated for the type of the crista galli, based on the position of its base in relation to the cribriform plate. The crista galli was also assessed for the presence of pneumatization. The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS v. 23. The frequencies of the variants were presented in percentages. The chi-squared test was used to evaluate gender differences. Besides, a P-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

The type II crista galli was the most predominant variant (n=257, 76.5%), followed by type I (n=59, 17.6%) and lastly type III (n=20, 6%). Also, the prevalence of the pneumatized crista galli was 28 or 8.3%. Pneumatization was commonly observed in types I and II variants.

The prevalence of the types of crista galli and its pneumatization in this study differed from some literature reports. Hence, radiologists, otorhinolaryngologists, and neurosurgeons must preoperatively recognize these variants in the population.