Prediction of the femoral neck-shaft angle from the length of the femoral neck

✍ Scribed by B. Isaac; Selvakumar Vettivel; Rajendra Prasad; L. Jeyaseelan; G. Chandi

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 56 KB
• Volume: 10
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0897-3806
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1098-2353(1997)10:5<318::aid-ca5>3.0.co;2-m

✦ Synopsis

A total of 171 adult South Indian femora, devoid of gross pathology, are used to measure the neck-shaft angle, length of the neck, intertrochanteric apical axis length, maximum vertical diameter of the head, kinematic radius, and maximum femoral length. The neck-shaft angle ranges from 120°to 136°with a mean of 126.7°and no significant side difference. The angle significantly and positively correlates with neck length, intertrochanteric apical axis length, kinematic radius, and minimum femoral length (P , 0.001) but not with the vertical diameter of the head. Regression equations for the neck-shaft angle against the correlated parameters are derived but only that against the length of the neck is strongly significant. From those correlations, 1) the neck-shaft angle can be estimated from a proximal femoral fragment, and 2) the required size of the length of the neck can be determined to design prostheses for the restoration of normal neck-shaft angle. Further, any estimated defective angle can be of help for forensic identification of an individual with pathological changes leading to an abnormal gait.