RESUMEN
Background: An understanding of the location, number, direction and size of nutrient foramina in long bones isvery important clinically, especially in orthopaedic surgical procedures such as fracture repair, bone grafting,vascularized bone microsurgery, intramedullary reaming and plating,as well as in medico legal cases. An accurateknowledge of the location of the nutrient foramina in long bones should help prevent intraoperative injuries inorthopaedic, as well as in plastic and reconstructive surgery.Aims & Objectives: The aim of our study is to observe the variations in number, location, direction and size of thenutrient foramina of Dried Human Femur.Materials and Methods: The study comprised 200 dry normal adult femur bones of unknown sex obtained fromthe Department of Anatomy of various medical colleges of Telangana, India.Results: The total number of nutrient foramina obtained in 200 femurs was 326. 82 bones had single nutrientforamen (41%), 111 bones had double nutrient foramina (55.5%), 6 bones had triple nutrient foramina (3%), andonly 1 bone 4 nutrient foramina (0.5%) and none of the bones showed zero foramen. The size of nutrient foraminawere also noted in 200 bones, 60 bones presented small sized foramina (18%), 130 bones presented with mediumsized foramina (40%), and rest of 136 bones presented with large sized foramina (42%). The nutrient foraminaobeyed the general rule that is, directed away from the growing end of the bone. Among 326 nutrient foramina149 were located on posterior surface (46%), about 126 foramina were located on medial surface (38.50%), 38were located on the lateral surface (12%), and the remaining 12 were located on the popliteal surface (6%), andnone on the anterior surface.Conclusion: Knowledge of the localization and number of the nutrient foramina is useful in certain surgicalprocedures such as bone grafting and microsurgical vascularized bone transplantation, to preserve the circulationintact and for open reduction surgeries.