Facial soft tissue thickness in the Brazilian population: new reference data and anatomical landmarks

Facial soft tissue thickness measurement can be useful among several medico-legal techniques that aim to establish the identity of skeletal remains. This study examined the soft tissue thickness that covered the faces of autopsied cadavers sent to the Medico-Legal Institute of Guarulhos from September 2010 to September 2011. Forty-nine anatomical facial landmarks were measured in cadavers less than 24h after death; these data were analysed using two-tailed t-tests. This project was approved by an ethics committee. One hundred cadavers were studied (74 males and 26 females). A majority of these individuals had died between 41 and 60 years old. Of the 49 anatomical landmarks, only five differed between the sexes (i.e., p-value less than 0.05): upper lip margin (p=0.006), superior labial sulcus (p=0.006), stomion (p=0.001), right lateral orbit (p=0.008), and left cheilion (p=0.009). The inclusion of additional anatomical landmarks allowed us to establish more precise facial thickness parameters that have the potential to be applied to cadaver facial approximations in Brazil; furthermore, some anatomic landmarks presented a higher discriminant power with regard to sex.