Open AccessChicken or the thumb? Comparing chicken femora with human metacarpals
Author(s) -
N Sargazi,
Y Oskrochi,
J. E. Houghton,
Birendra Rai,
D. J. Brown,
Graham Cheung
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
bulletin of the royal college of surgeons of england
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1478-7075
pISSN - 1473-6357
DOI - 10.1308/rcsbull.2021.75
Subject(s) - medullary cavity , cadaveric spasm , medicine , anatomy , femur , statistical significance , statistical analysis , nuclear medicine , orthodontics , surgery , mathematics , statistics
While the gold standard for simulation training in hand surgery is cadaveric hands, ethical issues and cost limit their use. Chicken thighbones have been utilised to replicate human metacarpals but there is a lack of literature to validate such a model. The aim of this study was to determine whether chicken femurs are morphologically similar to human metacarpal bones.Methods Computed tomography imaging was obtained of hands undertaken at our institute between 1 January and 31 December 2015. A total of 114 chicken thighs were also scanned. Bones with previous trauma or incomplete imaging were excluded. Bone length, distance to isthmus, radius of curvature, medullary canal diameter and cortical thickness were compared between the groups. Statistical analysis was conducted using Student’s t-test or the Mann-Whitney U test, with statistical significance implied with a p-value of 0.05 for all parameters described.Conclusions The chicken thigh model provides an anatomically suitable and more cost effective alternative to human cadaveric metacarpals in simulation training for hand surgery.