Morphometry of the Patellar Ligament in Human Fetuses

Objective: To gather detailed morphometric data of the patellar ligament in human fetuses. Method: Presentstudy is carried out on 32 human fetuses (18 males, 14 females) aged 18–32 weeks of gestation with no grosspathology or anomaly. Following the general external measurements of the fetuses each knee region weredissected. The relationships between the patellar ligament and surrounding structures and its localizationwere determined. Morphometric data on length, width, thickness and diameters were gathered. Results:Means and standard deviations of all parameters were calculated for each gestational week. There weresignificant relations between measured parameters and gestational age (p 0.05). All data were compared with previous studies and discussed. Conclusion: Dataobtained in this study will contribute to other studies carried out in the areas of obstetrics, perinatology,forensic medicine and fetal pathology, aimed at identifying anomalies, pathologies and variations of thepatellar ligament and treatment of such cases