koski1968 BAUME

Cranial growth centers 567
Fig. 1. A well-organized epiphyseal growth plate in a transplant originally consisting of the
distal cartilaginous end of the radius of the rat, after a 39.day period of transplantation
in the brain tissue.
In the following review I shall try to examine some of the alleged growth
centers of the craniofacial skeleton, using this definition as the criterion. In
order to be more meaningful from the orthodontic point of view, the discussion
will be limited to the postnatal period.
SUTURES
On the basis of the definition, the sutures cannot be called growth centers.
Baume? proposed the term growth site for “regions of periosteal or sutural bone
formation and modeling resorption adaptive to environmental influences,” a
definition which has been accepted by a recent textbook of orthodonticsT1 As
will be seen later, there is much evidence in favor of this differentiation between
growth centers and growth sites. However, since sutures have been called growth
centers or have been regarded as being homologous to epiphyseal growth
plates,4gs *o-83, Q” the “case of the sutural growth” must be dealt with here in some
detail. For a rather comprehensive discussion of this problem and of the cranial
growth in general, a recent review by Hoyte31 is recommended.
That a considerable amount of growth occurs in the sutural areas has been
proved by many authors,% 2% 49, 51, 52, 62, QL 92 and from that point of view the
so-called sutural growth is of major importance in craniofacial growth.
There appear to be two differing views concerning the structure of the
sutures (Fig. 2).