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Craniosynostosis

What is a craniosynostosis?

Craniosynotosis (pronounced crane-eo-SINOS-tow-sis) is when one or more of the skull’s flat bones, called bone plates, grow together (fuse) earlier than normal.

Between a baby’s skull bone plates are fibrous joints called sutures. They allow the baby’s head to come through the birth canal. After birth they let the skull grow and make room for brain growth.

After infancy, the sutures slowly begin to grow together (fuse) to fully connect the skull bones. They normally join at about age 2 - 3, but the process is not fully complete until adulthood.

The diagram below shows the several sutures in a newborn’s skull. An infant can have one or more fused sutures.

Sutures Most Often Involved in Craniosynostosis (drawn by Raymond Sze)
Sutures Most Often Involved in Craniosynostosis (drawn by Raymond Sze)

When any of these bone plates fuse early, the baby’s head develops a specific shape, depending on where the fusion occurs. You can usually see an infant’s abnormal head shape at, or shortly after, birth.

Who gets craniosynostosis?

Craniosynostosis is present at birth (congenital). This fusion of the baby’s bone plates happens early in a mother’s pregnancy, but we do not know why. Most children with craniosynostosis have only one suture affected and are otherwise healthy.

Craniosynostosis of the sagittal suture — where two bones on the top of the head come together — is the most common type and happens most commonly in first born males.

Sometimes craniosynostosis is part of a genetic syndrome such as Crouzon syndrome or Aperts syndrome. A syndrome is a disease or disorder that has more than one feature or symptom.

What is your experience with craniosynostosis?

We have a great deal of experience treating children with craniosynostosis. Our program is one of the largest in the country. We operate on about 70 to 80 children each year.

The neurosurgery and craniofacial teams work together. Surgery for craniosynostosis includes a neurosurgeon and often involves a craniofacial plastic surgeon. Learn more about the Craniofacial Center.

What surgery do you use to treat craniosynostosis?

Surgery to correct craniosynostosis involves reshaping the child’s skull. The neurosurgeon makes a cut, commonly called an incision, from one ear to the other across the top of the baby’s head and then reshapes the skull with a plastic surgeon.

If the sagittal suture is the only suture that needs repair, surgery happens when your baby is less than 3 months old. If other sutures need repair, we operate when your baby is 6-12 months old.

In this case, the neurosurgeon removes the bone from the affected portion of the skull and the plastic surgeon reshapes the skull bones into a more normal shape. Sometimes it takes more than one operation to complete the repair.