MORPHOMETRY OF THE ORBITAL REGION: "BEAUTY IS BOUGHT BY JUDGMENT OF THE EYES."

Objective: This study aimed to assess the orbital index which varies with race, regions, within the same race and periods in evolution. The knowledge of this index is therefore important in various aspects such as in interpretation of fossil records, skull classification in forensic medicine and in exploring the trends in evolutionary and ethnic differences. The documented ranges of this index in different nationalistic groups will assist in skull identification. Method: Sixty eight skulls were obtained from the Anatomy Department of University College of Medical Sciences and Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, Delhi for the present study. To prevent interobserver and intraobserver error two individuals measured the parameters independently with predetermined procedures. Vernier calipers accurate to 0.1mm and a 30mm ruler were used to measure the width and height of the orbits and a tapeline was used to measure the length and width of the skull. Result: The mean orbital height was found to be 33.47 ±1.56mm and 33.65 ±1.53mm whereas the mean orbital width was 42.06 ±1.68mm and 41.87 ±1.73mm on the right and left sides respectively. The mean orbital index was 79.65 ±4.02mm and 80.49 ±4.67mm on right and left sides respectively. The mean width of the skull was 128.71±5.94mm whereas the mean height of skull was 130.96 ± 4.07mm. Data obtained was statistically analyzed. Conclusion: Comparison of results from previous studies makes it evident that there is a large variation of the anatomical characteristics of the orbital cavity, not only due to the diversity of the used parameters, but also due to ethnic differences, the different measurement method and sample size. Data collected in the present investigation could serve as data base for the quantitative description of human orbital morphology during normal growth and development considering sex and ethnic related variation.