Foot and ankle ligament morphometry.

This study primarily measured and established a morphometric spectrum of cross-sectional areas for foot and ankle ligaments with the use of a new freeze-fracture technique that was independent of ligament cross-sectional shape. Ligament morphometry measurements were made on a total of 121 bone-ligament-bone preparations that were harvested from 26 fresh (unembalmed) male cadaver feet. We used the traditional digital caliper method to measure length and the freeze-fracture technique to measure cross-sectional area. Cross-sectional area values ranged from 21.36 to 170.48 mm(2) and length values from 5.01 to 37.45 mm. In addition, area-to-length ratios ranged from 0.60 to 27.02 mm. Compared with the freeze-fracture technique, the digital caliper method, which assumed that ligament cross-sectional shape was rectangular, resulted in an approximately 35% difference in cross-sectional area.