Auricular Anthropometry in South Western Nigeria Populace: Age and Sex Disparity, a Tool for Identification and Auricular Reconstruction among Nigerian Blacks

INTRODUCTION: There are population variations among people from different regions around the world in terms of auricle dimensions. This means it is not suitable to use foreign standards of auricle dimensions as a guideline for Nigerians undergoing plastic pinna reconstruction. Knowledge about the normal human ear dimensions and morphological features of various populations can be helpful from the anthropological and forensic point of view to provide data procedures for the inclusion and exclusion of persons for identification on the basis of ear variations collected from criminals. METHODOLOGY: This was a cross-sectional study conducted among the populace of South-West, Nigeria between. Two hundred subjects (100 males and 100 females) between 10 and 50 years of age were selected for the study. They are divided into four age range groups in years. Group A (10-20), B (21-30), C (31-40) and D (41-50). The anthropometric parameters of the external ear were measured by the indirect method and variation according to age and sex were studied. These are the Total length of the ear (TLE), the Total width of the ear (TWE), Total lobular length (TLL) and Total lobular width (TLW). RESULTS: Our study showed the distribution of age and sex into four groups(A-B) with most of the males falling in B (N=32) while the females in group A (N=36). The age range for the subjects enrolled in the study was between 10 to 50 years. Group B has the highest number of subjects (N=64), while Group D had the least number of subjects (N=32) as well as the least number of male subjects (N=12). CONCLUSION: This study has shown a significant difference between auricular anthropometry in relation to age and sex of the subjects studied with men having relatively higher mean values than women.