ANATOMICAL STUDY OF FEMORAL HEAD DIMENSIONS

Introduction: The femur is a longest and one of the important bones in our skeletal system. As femur is composed of a very hard tissue material, thus it is one of the best preserved parts of skeleton after death and many times they are the only parts available for forensic examination. Material & methods: This study was conducted on 80 dry femur bones of unknown age and sex, which were obtained from Department of Anatomy, GMC Jammu. Circumference of femoral head, vertical diameter of femoral head and transverse diameter of femoral head were studied. Result: The mean head circumference in right femur bones was 13.86 (+/- SD 1.08) centimetres (cms) with a range from 11to16 cms while in left femur mean head circumference was 13.71 (+/- SD 1.13) cms with a range of 10.5 to15 cms. The mean vertical head diameter of right and left sided femur bones was 43.51 (+/- SD 3.48) millimetres (mms) and 43.16 (+/- SD 3.74) mms respectively. Mean head transverse diameter of right and left femur bones was 42.65 (+/- SD 3.25) mms and 42.36 (+/- SD 3.69) mms respectively. Conclusion: The data obtained from present study can be used as a baseline data for other studies in department of Radiology, Orthopaedics, Forensic Medicine and Anatomy. It can also be used in designing prosthesis for various orthopaedics surgeries involving head of femur.