Prediction of risk of fracture neck femur even without any radiation exposure simply by measuring the inter- epicondylar distance with the help of sensitive calipers

Abstract              Fracture neck femur is an important health related problem causing considerable morbidity and sometimes mortality. A number of radiologically measurable variables viz. the neck shaft angle, neck length and neck circumference of femur have been found to have relationship with the risk of fracture neck femur. Methods: Our study conducted at the department of Anatomy, Nalanda Medical College Patna, attempted to search for a correlation if any, between such variables and clinically measurable ones like interepicondylar distance and the distance between greater trochanter to lateral epicondyle of femur. After a careful screening, 50 properly seasoned and dry femora were selected in this study, during the period of April 2017 to March 2018. Results: All variables were skewed by Kolmogorov-Smirnoff goodness of fit test and right and left femoral groups did not differ significantly for any variable under study. No positive or negative correlation was detected amongst the variables measurable only radiologically and the clinically measurable variables. Conclusion: A screening test and subsequent prophylactic measures could have been suggested to prevent the fracture. However, at the end of the study, no suitable alternative to the radiological assessment was detected. Nevertheless, the wide applicability of such a procedure, if ever developed, warrants a quest for other anthropometric variables that can serve the purpose and future studies may be undertaken accordingly.

Key Word: neck femur, epicondylar, greater trochanter, goniometer, calipers