A Morphometric Study of the Larynx

Objective. Describe anatomical measurements of a selection of laryngeal structures, performing a comparison of such measurements between men and women and between different age groups. Study Design. Populational morphometric study. Participants. Larynges from 50 male and 50 female fresh cadavers of older than 40 years were removed during autopsy. Methods. The following measurements were made on the external angle laryngeal framework between the blades of the thyroid cartilage: width of the thyroid cartilage, distance from the thyroid notch to the anterior commissure (AC), distance from the AC to the inferior thyroid border, distance from the AC to the larynx proeminence, length of membranacea part of vocal fold (VF), length of cartilaginea part of VF, width and thickness of true VF. Results. The differences between men and women were highly significant. All measured values of larynx obtained in the study were greater in men than in women, except for the thyroid angle, which was higher in women (P < 0.05). A significant difference in the comparison between the morphological measurements in the age groups for both men and women was not observed (P > 0.05). Conclusion. The comparison of larynx dimensions showed the presence of sexual dimorphism in the group of South Brazilian people studied. There was no morphometric difference between the larynx samples of the individuals of the same sex after 40 years of age.