ABSTRACT
Background: Shoulder prosthesis should accurately mimic the proximal shoulder and glenoid anatomy to recreatethe shoulder biomechanics. There may be a mismatch in the sizes of the Indian native bone and the currentlyavailable western shoulder prosthesis, since the bony morphology of Indians may be different from that of thewestern counterpart.Purpose: To measure the average humeral head diameter and glenoid length and width, so that a proper implantselection may be done based on the knowledge of average Indian bony morphology.Methods: Twenty shoulders in ten fresh cadavers were dissected to expose the humeral head and glenoidarticular surface. The humeral head diameter was measured with the help of a digital vernier caliper in twoplanes: Supero-inferior diameter (D1) and antero-posterior diameter (D2). The glenoid length (l) and width (w)were measured with the help of a vernier caliper.Results: The average humeral head diameter (D1) ± S.D. in the Supero-inferior plane was 45±3.4 mm (range 40-50.6mm) and antero-posterior (D2) plane was 42.7±2.2 mm (range 40-46mm) with a mean difference of 2.2 mm.The average length of the glenoid (l) was 35.4±1.3 mm (range 32-37mm) and width of the glenoid (w) was 25.3±2.1mm (range 21-28mm). The shape of the humeral head was more ellipsoidal at diameters above 45 mm.Conclusion. We can conclude that the humeral head diameters and glenoid length and width in Indian populationare smaller than the western counterparts. The ellipsoidal shape of the humeral heads becomes more marked atdiameters above 45mm.