Morphological Analysis of Length of Human Humerus.

ABSTRACT

Estimating the height plays an important role in identifying unknown bodies. For that, the length of long bones is taken into consideration. This kind of study helps forensic, anatomical, and archaeological cases. It is also useful to orthopaedic surgeons for treatment of proximal and distal humeral fractures, and also for their reconstruction. It is also important in identification of missing persons in medicolegal investigations to define identity of skeleton. Estimation of length of long bones enables quantification of bones, and internal mechanical properties as a possible way to improve the assessment of asymmetry in the humerus. Humerus is a long bone in the upper limb that articulates with scapula at glenohumeral joint and radius and ulna at elbow joint. We wanted to determine the length of humerus and establish a relation between right and left humeri.METHODSThe current study is conducted to determine the length of humerus in a total of 40 humeri (20 right and 20 left) collected from the Department of Anatomy, Guntur Medical College, Guntur. Each humerus is measured using an osteometric board.RESULTSResults are tabulated as mean and standard deviation, and statistically compared between right and left humeri. The right humeri are comparatively bigger than the left humeri. Further results correlated with previous studies. The mean length of the right humerus was 30.05 with the standard deviation 2.339.CONCLUSIONSHumeral length shows a great variation. Asymmetry between right and left humerus should be considered to be hereditary. In many situations the full length of long bones may not be available. In such cases it was confirmed by classical osteometric techniques in which humerus even in fragmented state can be recorded in a forensic case.