Anatomie et physiologie : recherches en cours
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Agenesis of Palmaris Longus Muscle among Selected Ethiopian Students

Tesfamichael Berhe and Assegedech Bekele

Background: Palmaris longus muscle has received a growing interest for its role in constructive surgery. Since the agenesis of Palmaris longus shows a strong racial variation, it is important to investigate its distribution on the Ethiopian students and compare the results with others.
Methods: a cross sectional descriptive study was conducted in 712 subjects comprising of 504 males and 208 females to assess the distribution of Palmaris longus in the freshman students of Gondar College of Medicine and Health Sciences ,University of Gondar, Ethiopia in 2010.
Results: The overall prevalence of absence both unilaterally and bilaterally in the two sexes was 15.3%. The bilateral absence was 8.1%. Unilateral absence was 7.2%. The distribution of unilateral absence on the right and left were 3.5% and 3.7% respectively. In 9 subjects the tendon of Palmaris longus was found duplicated unilaterally. In other ten individuals an overlapping and laterally deviating tendon of Palmaris longus muscle towards the tendon of flexor carpiradialis muscle were observed.
Conclusion: Results of this finding suggested that the prevalence of Palmaris longus agenesis is similar as reported in standard anatomy texts but considerably differ from findings obtained from studies that are conducted in other black African populations.