PREVALENCE OF THE RETROTRANSVERSE FORAMEN IN AN OSTEOLOGICAL COLLECTION FROM THE NORTHEAST REGION OF BRAZIL.

Abstract

In Anatomy, anatomical variation is a deviation from the normal morphology of an organ or structure of an individual, and among the various anatomical variations, we observe some in the first cervical vertebra, such as the presence of the retrotransverse foramen. Therefore, in the present study, we intend to describe the prevalence of this foramen, both bilateral and unilateral, in an Osteological Collection in the Northeast Region of Brazil. For our study, 231 dry atlas vertebrae from adults were used, 80 from females and 151 from males. All vertebrae belong to the collection of the Forensic Anthropology Center of the Faculty of Medicine of FAP-Araripina, located in the State of Pernambuco, Brazil. To collect the data, the inductive approach method was used with a systematic and direct observation technique for data collection and a descriptive procedure for analyzing them. According to the data we obtained the following results. Regarding the total sample (n=231), we verified the absence of the retrotransverse foramen in 150 vertebrae, representing 65% of the cases. In 40 vertebrae (17.3%) we found the foramen bilaterally. The right unilateral foramen appeared in 20 cases (8.7%) and on the left side in 21 vertebrae, representing 9.1% of cases. The presence of this bilateral foramen was more common in females (18.8%) than in males (16.6%). Due to the great importance of this structure for the clinic, further studies in our population are necessary to identify these variations.