Morphological study of the pterygoid canal in computed tomography scans of a population from Southeast Brazil

The aim of this study was to evaluate the morphology of the pterygoid canal in computed tomography (CT) scans of a southeastern Brazilian population. One hundred CT scans were evaluated, 58 from male skulls and 42 from female skulls. The Mimics 18.0 software (Materialise, NV, Belgium) was used for segmentation of the images from each CT scan in the region corresponding to the sphenoid bone and the pterygopalatine fossa. After segmentation, volume (mm³) and length (mm) were obtained using a specific tool. The types of pterygoid canals were analyzed according to the following criteria: type 1 (pterygoid canal completely within the sphenoid sinus), type 2 (pterygoid canal on the floor of the sphenoid sinus or partially protruding into the sphenoid sinus), and type 3 (pterygoid canal completely embedded in the sphenoid corpus). Descriptive data for continuous variables were presented as mean and standard deviation or median and interquartile range. Two-way ANOVA tests with Tukey’s post hoc test were used for analyzing continuous variables comparing different types within each sex and between sexes (unpaired analyses). A confidence interval of 95% and a significance level of 5% were established for all tests. Statistical analysis was performed using GraphPAD Prism v.10 software (San Diego, CA, USA). The most common configuration of the pterygoid canal was type 2 for both the right and left sides. For both sides of the evaluated skulls, it was observed that type 3 pterygoid canal had a larger volume in both males and females compared to other types. Although not always significant, for all types, the volume and length in males was higher than in females, especially when comparing types 2 and 3. In conclusion, the morphology of the pterygoid canal may vary among individuals of different sexes, particularly in individuals with type 2 and 3 pterygoid canals. The most incident pterygoid canal was type 2.