A Study of Diaphyseal Nutrient Foramina in Human Tibia

Introduction: Nutrient foramen is the external opening of the nutrient canal in a bone. An understanding of the location, number, direction and caliber of diaphyseal nutrient foramina in Tibia is very important clinically, especially in orthopedic surgical procedures. Method: This study was conducted on 312 (161 Right and 151 Left) macerated specimens of adult human Tibia. All the parameters like average number, average distance of the nutrient foramen from the upper end of Tibia, ‘foraminal index’, the most common location and the frequency of the location on the anatomical surfaces and borders of each of the Tibia, the caliber and the direction of each diaphyseal nutrient foramina and the frequency of the cases not obeying the Berard’s rule in Tibia is studied. Results: The average number of diaphyseal nutrient foramina found in Tibias was 0.97. Foraminal index (FI) was 45.01%; ranging from 32.86% to 28.09% and the mean FI was 37.57%. The location of nutrient foramina observed was 99.3% on the posterior surface. In 3 out of 312 tibiae there was nutrient foramina directed upwards and the tibiae had 100% dominant nutrient foramina. Conclusion: No author has reported tibia without NF and therefore the average number was always reported as greater than one, while we report 0.97. Also this is the first study where we report that in 3 tibias the Berard’s rule was not followed Therefore findings of this study do confirm the observations reported in earlier studies but some significant differences are also observed.