General organization of the human intra-masseteric aponeuroses: changes with ageing

A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study of the layout of the aponeurotic layers of the masseter muscle was done on a series of 18 patients, aged from 6 to 79 years. The study was undertaken in parallel with a study on 169 cadavers to correlate the anatomical dissection and MRI findings. The aims were as follows. On the cadavers, the results of dissection were compared with the results of MRI: the layer-by-layer dissections and the anatomical dissections of the different spatial planes have shown that the masseter muscle displays a penniform structure typically characterized by the presence of alternating muscular/aponeurotic layers. The anatomical sections and the MRI section in the same plane allowed the appearance of the intra-muscular aponeurotic layers on MRI to be defined. The patients were then divided into four age cohorts, and the arrangement and variations of the human masseter muscle defined as a function of age. This double study has brought new elements to the understanding of the timing of the development of the intra-muscular aponeurotic structures and the modifications which they undergo with ageing. It appears that the aponeurotic structures only become individually identifiable towards the age of 17 years and that ageing is accompanied by a reduction in the transverse muscular mass accompanied by a verticalization of the aponeurotic layers.