Morphological and Metrical Study of the Articular Facets on the Calcaneus of Southern Nigerians

Abstract

The study was carried out using 60 Nigerian dry calcanei obtained from anatomy laboratories of University of Port Harcourt and Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU) Nnewi campus. The specimens were free of pathological changes and anomalies and the 1974 El- Eishi approach was used to estimate the morphological structure of the articular facets on the calcanei. The method involved preparation of bones using standard procedure and studying facets of calcanei to reveal different pattern types of articular facets ranging from type i to type iv. The diameters of the articular facets were also measured and divided by two to obtain values of r (r=radii) which in turn was used to calculate the surface area of each pattern type. The readings were used to calculate the mean range. The result showed that type i has a frequency of 61.67%, type ii 20.0%, type iii 15.0% and type iv was 3.33%. It is obvious that type i pattern of articular facets is more common in our environment. We conclude that between the morphometric and metric methods, the morphometric gave a clear and more accurate result.

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