The anatomy of the human temporal bone is complex and, therefore, poses unique challenges for students. Furthermore, temporal bones are frequently damaged from handling in educational settings due to their inherent fragility. This report details the production of a durable physical replica of the adult human temporal bone, manufactured using 3D printing technology. The physical replica was printed from a highly accurate virtual 3D model generated from CT scans of an isolated temporal bone. Both the virtual and physical 3D models accurately reproduced the surface anatomy of the temporal bone. Therefore, virtual and physical 3D models of the temporal bone can be used for educational purposes in order to supplant the use of damaged or otherwise fragile human temporal bones.

This paper describes a unique case of craniosynostosis in a female skull in which sagittal sutures were completely fused by adolescence. Despite sagittal synostosis, the skull was of normal shape and size. Regarding craniometric features, the synostotic normocephalic skull was markedly different than that of scaphocephalic skulls which typically result from premature obliteration of the sagittal suture.

B a c k g r o u n d: The anatomy of arteries supplying blood to the brain often varies among the population. It applies particularly to posterior cerebral circulation. The impact of its anatomy variabilities on the formation of intracranial aneurysms has not been determined yet. The aim was to find out if posterior cerebral circulation anatomy variations coexist with basilar artery aneurysms (BAAs). We retrospectively analyzed 27 patients with BAA and a group of 30 patients matched by gender and age but without BAA. In both groups together most (66.67%) of patients were female and the average age was 59.75 ± 10.91. All of the patients had Computed Tomography performed. We assessed the occurrence of BAA, basilar artery (BA) diameter, vertebral artery (VA) diameter, posterior cerebral artery (PCA) diameter, and if patients had hypoplastic VA or PCA.
R e s u l t s: The presence of right VA hypoplasia significantly increased the risk of BAA occurrence (48.15% vs. 16.67%; p = 0.011). The occurrence of hypoplastic VA on either side was significantly associated with the risk of BAA formation (59.26% vs. 26.67%; p = 0.013). Patients with BAA had slightly larger left PCA diameter 1cm after division (1.96 ± 0.51 vs. 1.64 ± 0.42; p = 0.014) in comparison to those without BAA. Additionally, hypoplastic right PCA occurred more often in patients with BAA (22.22% vs. 0%; p = 0.022).
C o n c l u s i o n s: We can conclude that the anatomy of PCA and VA affects the occurrence of BAA. Hypoplastic VA, the presence of wider left PCA and hypoplastic right PCA may be factors that coexist with BAA occurrence.