Sharmila Bhanu P, Devi Sankar K, Ravichandran D, Ahammad Basha S
AIM: To study the normal relationship of the anteroposterior (APA), transepicondylar (TEA) and posterior condylar (PCA) axis of normal cadaveric femoral bones using digital technology and special computer program. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The study comprised of 196 dry adult femora from 98 right and 98 left sides irrespective of sex and age belonging to Andhra Pradesh population of India. The bone collections were obtained from the Anatomy department, Narayana medical college, Nellore, India. The femurs were kept in normal anatomical position on OB. The photographs were taken from the distal end of all the femurs placing the camera lens 10cm constantly away from it with a digital camera. Using the reference points, angle between APA-TEA, APA-PCA and TEA-PCA were identified. The statistical significance of difference between the right and left groups was evaluated by using Student paired t-test. Data were presented as mean±SD. P-value less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The relationship of the angle between the APA-TEA, APA-PCA and TEA-PCA were observed. The angle of AP-TE, AP-PC and TE-PC was 94.84±3.43°, 87.64±1.62° and 6.84±2.71° respectively on right side. On the left side, the angle of AP-TE, APPC and TE-PC was 92.36±4.06°, 93.61±2.54° and 3.19±0.99° respectively. CONCLUSION: The normal femoral rotational alignment from cadaveric bone study using computer aided software can be helpful to the surgeon in selecting appropriate reference axis in any particular knee surgeries. In this regard the present data can be taken into consideration for the femoral rotational alignment during any intraoperative surgeries of knee and in total knee arthroplasty.
