Cribra orbitaria and hyperostotic osteoporosis in Paleopathology

Abstract

An historical review of hyperostotic osteoporosis, cribra orbitaria, and anemic osteopathies is presented, focussing on the différente macroscopic anatomicopathological aspects characterized by certain authors and correlated with various etiologies. The authors explain their own case histories and compare them with the criteria of other paleopathologists who have considered this question, attempting to correlate it with thalasemia and malaria in our country. They finally conclude that there was probably no single etiology for cribra orbitaria and hyperostotic osteoporosis, although cases in which these conditions coexited were often due to a single cause, which may have been related to anemia and malaria. A more in-depth examination of the etiology and current occurrence of cribra orbitaria, based on postmortem studies, is essential.