A study of cuboidal articular surface of calcaneus and its clinical significance

Eluru Ravitheja¹, Dasari Sudhakar Babu^2*, Siraz M Ausavi³

¹Associate professor, ³Professor and HOD, Great Eastern Medical School, Ragolu Village, Srikakulam district, Andhra Pradesh- 532484 INDIA.

²Associate Professor, Department of Anatomy, Government Medical College, Nizamabad, Telangana. 503001 INDIA.

Abstract               Aim: Calcaneus is the largest and most frequently fractured tarsal bone. The cuboidal articular surface is concavo-convex which fits on to the reciprocal surface of cuboid. The aim of study is to observe the different shapes of cuboidal articular surface of calcaneus and their importance in clinical aspects of ankle instability Materials and Methods: 60 dry human calcanei (25 right, 35 left) of unknown sex collected from the bone bank of Anatomy department, Great Eastern Medical School, in Srikakulam district of Andhra pradesh were used for the study. The shape of the cuboidal articular surface of various calcaneii were studied and results tabulated. Results: Wedge (42%) and Vertically oval (23%) shaped articular surfaces were seen in more number of calcaneii and the other shapes include Triangular, Rectangular, Circular, Irregular and Comma shaped surfaces. Conclusion: The knowledge of shape of the cuboidal articular surface of the calcaneus is useful for radiologists and orthopaedic surgeons in permorfing arthoscopic peroneal tendon reefing for correcting chronic lateral ankle instability and in triple arthodesis for club foot.

Key Words: Cuboidal articular surface, ankle instability, calcaneus.