Carrying angle in children: a normative study

Abstract

Information about the carrying angle and its variations are important in the management of paediatric elbow injuries. We measured the carrying angle using bony landmarks for 300 rural South Indian children aged 5-18 years. The study confirms that the clinical carrying angle correlates best with age up to 15 years, following which there was a slight decrease in the angles. The rate of increase of the carrying angle for boys and girls is 0.42 and 0.60 degrees per year respectively. Sex differences seem to gradually increase with a maximum being around puberty. The carrying angle is greater in girls than in boys by a mean of 1.31 degrees. The carrying angle did not correlate well with height, weight, humeral length or ulnar length. The reproducibility of measuring the carrying angle by the simple technique used in our study leads us to propose that this may be used in actual clinical practice.

Evolução etária do ângulo de carregamento do cotovelo: estudo clínico-radiográfico

“…10 It is reported in literature that this variable undergoes a progressive increase when, in puberty, it reaches its maximum value; 1,4,5 according to some authors this fact is allegedly related to gender, and is higher in female individuals. 1,4,5 However there are others that did not encounter this relationship. 2,6 Observing Figure 3, at the age of 9 years there was a significant difference of the value of the elbow carrying angle between genders.…”

“…The elbow carrying angle appears not to be directly related to the height, weight or length of the ulna or humerus. 1 However we came across authors that relate this variable with the stature of individuals, indicating that the elbow carrying angle is higher in shorter people. 6 We believe that the maximum extension of the elbow should contribute to the increase of the elbow carrying angle, in conformity with the study by Golden et al 4 influenced by ligamentous laxity.…”

“…1 In physiological conditions this parameter varies according to age, 2 gender, 1,3 hyperextension of the elbow, 4 dominant upper limb, 5 anthropometric characteristics such as height 6 and intertrochanteric distance 7 and can be measured by simple clinical and radiographic techniques. 1 Examining the various databases of orthopedic literature, we identified few articles that study the elbow carrying angle and did not recognize any national reference determining the evolution of normality in our population that presents a distinctive trait of miscegenation among different ethnic groups. Therefore, we prepared a paper aimed at evaluating the elbow carrying angle by clinical and radiographic examination in individuals without disorders of the musculoskeletal system to determine a normality curve according to age brackets, from childhood to skeletal maturity, and also to verify if there is statistically significant difference between the clinical and radiographic measurements.…”

Goniometry of elbow carrying angle: a comparative clinical study on sexual dimorphism in young males and females

“…10 The evaluation of carrying angle of elbow and knowledge of its variations is essential for the handling and monitoring of traumatic lesions. 11 In physiologic conditions this parameter varies according to age, gender, hyperextension of the elbow, dominant upper limb, anthropometric characteristics such as height and intertrochanteric distance. [12][13][14][15] We observed mean values to be 12.18±2.62° in males and 13.88±3.46° in females.…”

Evaluation of the carrying angle of the elbow joint in children’s and adolescents and its correlation with various parameters

“…The rate of carrying angle increment for boys and girls is 0.42 and 0.60 per year, respectively [3] . Knowledge of measurement of carrying angle of the elbow and its variations is important when evaluating traumatic elbow injuries in childhood and in adolescence and other elbow disorders that require reconstruction arthroplasties [7] . The type of fracture a child sustains after fall on outstretched hand is also determined by the value of the carrying angle.…”