Absence of the palmaris longus tendon in mid eastern population

Abstract EN

Objective : Determine the incidence of the absence of the palmaris longus tendon in the middle eastern population with relation to gender, hand dominance.

Setting : Orthopaedic department, Plastic and reconstructive surgery department Jordan University Hospital-Amman Methods : Between September 2004 and August 2007, we examined 1, 020 Jordanian subjects, (510 men, 510 women) aged between six and 77 years (Mean 29.35 years) for the absence of Palmaris longus tendon.

The examination was done using the usual method of detection by firm opposition of the thumb to little finger with slight wrist flexion.

All statistical analyses were carried out using the statistical software programme SPSS (Version 14).

Results : In right-handed subjects bilateral absence was more common than unilateral absence, (p = 0.0002).

Bilateral absence in females and males was more common than unilateral absence, (p = 0.0013, and 0.0029), respectively.

Overall absence in females was more common than for males, (p = 0.0069).

Conclusions : Our figures form another variability as the reported literature regarding the unilateral and bilateral absence, furthermore this put middle eastern population comes second to the Turkish population in term of the overall prevalence of absence and higher than the Caucasian population.

There is no statistical significance between the dominant hand and the absent palmaris longus, (p = 0.632).

Palmaris longus tendon is an essential tendon graft for different surgical specialities.

It is advisable for clinicians working in the middle east region to be aware of these findings.