fontanelle
Also known as soft spot, fontanel
A fontanelle (or fontanel) (colloquially, soft spot) is an anatomical feature of the infant human skull comprising soft membranous gaps (sutures) between the cranial bones that make up the calvaria of a fetus or an infant. Fontanelles allow for stretching and deformation of the neurocranium both during birth and later as the brain expands faster than the surrounding bone can grow. Premature complete ossification of the sutures is called craniosynostosis.
Key facts
- Anatomy.Name
- Fontanelle
- Anatomy.Latin
- fonticuli cranii
- Anatomy.Image
- Gray197.png
- Anatomy.Caption
- The skull at birth, showing the anterior and posterior fontanelles
- Anatomy.Image2
- Gray198.png
- Anatomy.Caption2
- The skull at birth, showing the lateral fontanelles
via Wikipedia infobox
Research
2,443 papers- Anterior Fontanelle Dermoid Cyst: Surgical Technique.Cureus · 2021
- Bulging fontanelle in a febrile 9-month-old girl.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2024
- Ultrasonographic Measurement of Anterior Fontanelle Size in Infants with Deformational Plagiocephaly.
~7 min read
Article
13 sectionsContents
- Structure
- Closure
- Clinical significance
- Disorders
- Bulging
- Sunken
- Enlarged
- Third
- Other animals
- Primates
- Dogs
- Additional images
- References
A fontanelle (or fontanel) (colloquially, soft spot) is an anatomical feature of the infant human skull comprising soft membranous gaps (sutures) between the cranial bones that make up the calvaria of a fetus or an infant. Fontanelles allow for stretching and deformation of the neurocranium both during birth and later as the brain expands faster than the surrounding bone can grow. Premature complete ossification of the sutures is called craniosynostosis.
After infancy, the anterior fontanelle is known as the bregma.