Morphometric studies of the nutrient foramen in lower limb long bones of adult black and white South Africans

ABSTRACT

The present study analyzed the direction, number, location and position of the nutrient foramina in 1080 lower limb long bones of 20th century adult black and white South Africans. In each population 90 complete skeletons were used resulting in 360 femora, 360 tibiae and 360 fibulae being analyzed. The majority of the nutrient foramina pointed away from the growing end of the diaphysis in the lower limb bones with a few pointing in the opposite direction in both black and white populations. A single nutrient foramen was common on the shafts of the tibia and fibula in both populations, while, in the femur, double nutrient foramina were most frequent in the white population as opposed to one in the black counterparts. Nutrient foramina were located most frequently on the linea aspera of the femur and the posterior surface of both the tibia and the fibula in both black and white populations. The mean foraminal indices were as follows in the black population, 41.87% for the femur, 31.66% for the tibia and 43.33% for the fibula, and in the white population, 44.58% for the femur, 33.15% for the tibia and 46.86% for the fibula. These foraminal indices represent the relative positions of the nutrient foramina on the shaft of the bone. The information about direction, number, location and position of the nutrient foramina is important clinically during free vascularized bone grafting to preserve the blood supply of the graft, during fracture repair, joint replacement surgeries, and also in medico-legal cases

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