Abstract

Background: Clinically, longitudinal stress fractures are more commonly associated with the tibia. The healing of fractures, as of all injuries, is reliant upon blood supply. So, detailed anatomical study of position and number of nutrient foramina is must. Nutrient foramen is an opening into the bone shaft which gives way to the blood vessels of the medullary cavity of a bone, for its nourishment and growth.

Objective: To investigate the number, position, size, and direction of nutrient foramina of tibia and calculation of foraminal index (FI).

Materials and Methods: The study was done in Department of Anatomy, Shyam Shah Medical College, Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, India, in 80 adult human tibiae. We have measured all the four parameters in each bone according to standard method.

Result: According to FI, most of the nutrient foramina of tibia were situated in the proximal third (type 1) below the soleal line. The mean FI was 32.96 ± 6.06, with the FI ranging between 27.20% and 37.25% of the bone length.

Conclusion: To conclude that our detailed study of topographic anatomy and morphology of nutrient foramina of tibia provides additional information to orthopedicians before planning surgeries on tibia.

Key words: Tibia, nutrient foramina, nutrient artery, foraminal Index (FI), dominant foramina (DF), secondary foramina (SF)