Introduction: The present paper is a morphological study of human quadrilateral cartilage including 0 to 66 years old subjects. The quadrilateral cartilage was removed in block with the others nasal cartilages. The open rhinoplasty was the approach used to remove the cartilage from deceased patients autopsied at Serviço de Patologia do Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto - USP São Paulo and Serviço de Verificação de óbitos do Interior, at Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo. Study design: Experimental. Methods: The anatomical parts were cut into three peaces, each corresponding to the: caudal position (position 1), mid (position 2) and cefalic (position 3) thirds. After fixing and embedding the samples were cut in 7 µm slice, staining them by Hematoxylin & Eosin or Alcian Blue. Each position was divided in three locals: supeior anterior), (local 1), mid (local 2) and Inferior (posterior), (local 3) thirds and studied in optical microscopy by photometric, histological and morphometric methods. Results: The main results were that quadrilateral cartilagenous tissue have the highest growth speed until the age 5 years. After age of 8 years, there is a decrease in this speed. Conclusion: Nasoseptal surgeries can be done after age of 5 years and the most adequate age to do these surgeries is 8 years old. There was no diference among diferents parts of the septal cartilage studied.
septum of the nose; quadrilateral cartilage; growth of the septum
