[Effects of intracranial pressure on frontal sinus development]

Through a study of some syndromes of intra-cranial high and low pressure, the authors try to find out the relations between the intra-cranial stresses and the development of frontal sinuses. They account for the choice of frontal sinuses and the various factors determining this pneumatization. They study the morphology of the frontal sinuses in 20 cases of old and chronic hydrocephaly, in 13 cases of oxycephaly with a late diagnosis, and in 20 cases of adults suffering with infantile cerebral hemiatrophy. They show that in these syndromes, the development of frontal sinuses is an inverse ratio to the intracranial pressure. However, they point out that in standard people, the extreme differences in the morphology of their frontal pneumatization can be explained not only by various causes--a number of which is as yet not known--but also by an aleatory distribution.