[Subdental synchondrosis. Computed tomographic and histologic investigation on morphological aspects of fracture at the base of the dens in 36 human axis specimens].

BACKGROUND: During development of the axis, four different ossification centers are formed. The two cranial ossification centers are demarcated from the ossification center of the vertebral corpus by a subdental synchondrosis. During further development the subdental synchondrosis--which is thought to close spontaneously--might not close completely, which leads to the necessity for differentiating synchondrotic remnants from a fracture at the base of the dens (type II according to Anderson and D'Alonzo).
RESULTS: To characterize the architecture of the axis with particular attention to the subdental synchondrosis, the axis was harvested from 36 age- and gender-matched patients covering the human aging process from adolescence to senescence. In all specimens bone mineral density (BMD) was measured by peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT). Morphological analysis after undecalcified processing of all specimens revealed a persistency of the subdental synchondrosis in 87% of all patients. Histological characterization of the subdental synchondrosis showed a cartilaginous structure interspersed with focal mineralization. Furthermore, static histomorphometric analysis revealed that trabecular bone volume and cortical thickness were significantly reduced within the base of the axis as compared to the dens and the corpus, respectively.
CONCLUSION: Taken together, these results provide evidence that the base of the axis is a structurally distinct region. Besides well-recognized biomechanical aspects, these results suggest that the structure of the base of the axis might contribute to the occurrence of fractures of the axis and offer an additional explanation for the observation of nonunion after type II dens fractures.