A Morphometric Study of the Patterns and Variations of the Acromion and Glenoid Cavity of the Scapulae in Egyptian Population.

BACKGROUND: Owing to its many variations, scapula became one of the most interesting bones of the human skeleton.

AIM: To measure acromial and glenoid morphology in to describe their anatomical patterns and variations in Egyptians to establish possible morphofunctional correlations related to race, geographic region and literature data.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred and sixty scapulae of unknown age and sex were studied. Morphological shapes of the tip of the acromion; types of acromion; and morphological shapes of the glenoid were evaluated. Length and width of the scapulae, length, breadth and thickness of the acromion process and distances of the acromio-coracoid and acromio-glenoid in addition to glenoid diameters were measured.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The morphometric values of the two sides were analysed using an unpaired t-test. Statistical significance was set p≤ 0.05.

RESULTS: The intermediate shape of the acromion presented with the highest incidence, while the cobra shaped presented with the lowest distribution in both sides. The oval shaped glenoid cavity presented with the highest incidence while the inverted coma shaped showed the lowest incidence. These results are in match with other population. However, the morphometric values of the scapula, acromion process and glenoid cavity were higher than reported in Turkish and Indians.

CONCLUSION: Our data are important to compare Egyptian scapulae to those from various other races that could contribute to demographic studies of shoulder disease probability and management in Egyptian population.