Proximal Femoral Epiphysis: Manual Morphometry versus Digital Morphometry Epífisis Femoral Proximal: Morfometría Manual versus Morfometría Digital

MENEZES, T. M.; ROCHA, T. D. S.; DE OLIVEIRA, B. D. R.; DE ALBUQUERQUE, Y. M. L. & CAIAFFO, V. Proximal femoralepiphysis: Manual morphometry versus digital morphometry. Int. J. Morphol., 33(3):1114-1119, 2015.SUMMARY: It is important and necessary to know the morphometric characteristics of the proximal femur in order to reduce therisk of complications associated with surgical procedures performed in the area due to vascular, metabolic or trauma causes, an d to achievean alignment of prosthesis to be implanted. The morphometric analysis has proved possible to be used, and can be a valid help to obtaincertain parameters that may contribute to scientific research in several areas. For this, a good understanding of evaluation techniques andprinciples that can be applied to obtain reliable and valid results is needed. To measure the proximal femoral epiphysis by man ual morphometry,with the aid of the caliper, and digital morphometry, with the aid of software and compare them. Twenty nine femurs were used t o measurethe following parameters: diameter of the femoral head in the cranio caudal axis (DFH–CC) and sagittal axis (DFH–S), diameter of thefemoral neck cranio caudal axis (DFN–CC) and sagittal axis (DFN–S), length of the femoral neck (LFN) and length of the intertro chantericline (LIL). After the measurements, the mean values were compared between the two morphometric techniques. The manual morphomet ryobtained the following average values: DFH–CC 4.42 ±0.44, DFH–S 4.38±0.47; DFN–CC 3.10 ±0.35; DFN–S 2.50±0.37; LFN 2.55 ±0.42;LIL 4.79±0.62. While the values obtained by digital morphometry were: DFH–CC 3.09±0.41, DFH–S 3.35±0.40; DFN–CC 1.79±0.26;DFN–S 2.26±0.23; LFN 1.42±0.33; LIL 3.33±0.54. All parameters measured from the manual technique showed values significantlyhigher (p<0.05) than values obtained by digital morphometry. This study showed that there is no morphometry gold standard. Differentmorphometric methods can effectively reproduce, the values of morphometric anatomical structures, depending on the purpose of t he study,the anatomical structures and experience of the researcher.KEY WORDS: Proximal femoral epiphysis; Morphometry; Anatomy.