Oxycephaly and Related Conditions

Abstract

Oxycephaly has been defined (Chap. 9) as a deformity in which the head is abnormally high and conical. The vertex appears pointed whether viewed from the side or from the front. This is typical oxycephaly, termed ‘true oxycephaly’ by Montaut and Strieker (1977), who liken the vertex to a sugar-loaf, a simile unhelpful for those of us whose sugar comes rectangular. The deformity is always associated with fusion of multiple sutures. However, this is one of the rarer manifestations of multiple sutural fusion. Depending on the part of the cerebral capsule first involved, the deformity process can produce various head shapes. If the retardation of capsular growth affects primarily the coronal suture, a form of turricephaly will result; if the sagittal, then a form of scaphocephaly. Some writers designate these head shapes as oxycephaly when multiple sutural fusion is evident, but we do not. They are considered in Chaps. 10 and 12. However, one can reasonably speak of oxycephaly when either of these deformities is associated with a pointed bony prominence in the bregmatie area, like a turret or clown’s cap, due to late closure of an open anterior fontanelle.