Anatomical and Morphomertic Study of the Menisci of the Knee Joint in Egyptians

Abstract

Background: Meniscus injury is common in daily life as well as in sports activities especially football players and runners. Variation of form, thickness and width of the menisci can determine the possibility and type of their injury. Aim of Study:The aim of this work is to study the different measurements of the different parts of both menisci (distance, circumference, thickness and width) in cadaveric specimens and to correlate these measurements with in vivo MRI measurements, including sex difference of different meniscal parameters. Materials and Methods:The cadaveric study included fifty menisci of 25 knees of formalin fixed adult human cadavers; Measurements were done with the aid of sliding Vernier caliper and were recorded manually. The MRI study included 76 patients (38 male and 38 female), the caliper used for measurements was inbuilt software. The measurements were performed by the same radiologist in all the scans, to prevent inter-observer error.Results: In the cadaveric study; correlation between the different parameters showed statistically significant positive correlation, while in the MRI study; no significant differences were found in results when comparing male and female subjects, all significant differences were found between medial and lateral menisci, with significant positive correlation between the different parameters. Conclusion:In cadaveric study, the posterior horn is the thickest and widest part of the meniscus in both medial and lateral menisci. There is also a strong positive correlation between the different parameters of the menisci (distance between anterior and posterior horns, the outer and inner circumference of the menisci). Regarding MRI study, it is concluded that, in agreement with the cadaveric study, the posterior horns of the menisci are the thickest and widest parts. There is also a strong positive correlation in thickness between different parts of the same meniscus, and the width between the different parts of the same meniscus. On the other hand, there were no significant differences in these parameters regarding the sex.

Thickness and width of the menisci of adult knee joint: a descriptive cross-sectional observational study in cadavers

“…The sample size of this present study was calculated by the formula 0 n ¼ Zα 2 x σ 2 /d 2 ', where Z α = 1.96 at 95% confidence level, σ = standard deviation, d= 1% absolute precision with 95% confidence level and 80 % power with 1% absolute precision, the sample size comes to be 100. The reference article used to calculate the sample size was El-Aasar et al14…”