The Morphometric Development Of The Fetal Knee During The Fetal Period

Abstract

Aim: The study aims at examining morphometric growth patterns of the distal part of the femur, the proximal part of the tibia, the patella,and anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments in human fetal knee. Method: This study was conducted at Meram Faculty of Medicine, Anatomy Department in 2009. The fetuses were obtained from Selcuk University, Meram Faculty of Medicine the Gynaecology Department, and Dr. Faruk Sükan Maternity Hospital (Konya, Turkey). Fifty spontaneously aborted fetuses with ages ranging between 9 and 37 weeks of gestation (24 male right, 24 male left, 26 female right and 26 female left) that have no evident malformations were analyzed. The measurements of dimensions of the distal part of the femur, the proximal part of the tibia, the patella, the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments were carried out. A characterization of the aspect ratio (the medial-lateral to anterior-posterior dimensions) was performed for the proximal aspect of the tibia and the distal part of the femur. Student’s T test was used for Statistical analysis of comparisons. Results: In all measurements, no gender and side differences were detected (p> 0,05) and no differences were observed in the femur aspect ratio, tibia aspect ratio between males and females (p>0,05) On the contrary, a significant relationship was seen between trimesters and all parameters (p<0.005). Conclusion: Thorough information of knee joint and its components regarding the fetal period will reveal the extent of biological variation of knee joint and its components that will be used in future studies. We expect that the data obtained in this study will be beneficial for other studies on knee anomalies, pathologies and variations in addition to diagnoses and treatments of such conditions conducted in obstetrics, perinatology, forensic medicine and fetal pathology departments.