A study on axillary artery and its branching pattern among the population of West Bengal, India.

Variations in the branching pattern of the axillary artery have paramount importance among anatomists, surgeons and radiologists. A study was conducted on this topic in Kolkata, among the people of West Bengal, a state of India. The upper limbs of 70 cadavers were dissected bilaterally at the Department of Anatomy, Calcutta National Medical College, Kolkata, between 2008 and 2011. Among the study population, 52 cadavers (74.3%) were male and the rest were female, with average age 62.01 years (standard deviation = 6.58) and average height 1.59 meter (standard deviation = 0.096) respectively. The mean length of the axillary artery was 10.15 cm (standard deviation = 1.056). The superior thoracic, thoracoacromial and subscapular arteries were found to be constant branches of the axillary artery while the other branches showed considerable variations. Among those constant branches a high, significant correlation was found between the distance of origin of thoracoacromial artery from the outer border of the 1st rib and the length of the axillary artery, for the right and respectively the left upper limb of male cadavers. In females it showed a moderate, albeit significant correlation only. Similarly, the length of the axillary artery established a moderate correlation with the distance of origin of the superior thoracic and of the subscapular arteries on the right side of female cadavers. No other significant correlation was obtained.

Role of scaphoid in the abduction and adduction movements of wrist joint.

Being a carpal bone scaphoid has an important role in wrist movements. Wrist joint is a synovial modified ellipsoid joint where movements like flexion, extension and adduction, abduction take place around two axes (transverse and anteroposterior). These movements at the wrist joint are associated with considerable range of movements at the midcarpal joint, as same group of muscles act on both of these joints. A study has been done amongst 120 persons at the Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Kolkata, West Bengal during the period from 1998-2000 to detect the important movements of scaphoid bone specially during the abduction and adduction of wrist joint (which occur in association with the intercarpal joints) and also to detect whether such movements have any speciality in the population of eastern part of India. It was found in this study that the scaphoid acts as a link bone between the two rows of carpal bones and prevents the buckling of midcarpal joint specially of the capitato-lunate joint interface.