Eur J Anat, 23 (1): 59-63 (2019)

Is the existence of sublabral foramen age-related?

Abduelmenem Alashkham^1,2,3, Abdulrahman Alraddadi^2,4, Roger Soames²

¹Anatomy, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, ²Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification, University of Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom, ³Human Anatomy Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Zawia, Zawia, Libya, ⁴King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT Although a sublabral foramen does not require treatment, its association with age, sex or side remains unknown. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to investigate the incidence of a sublabral foramen and age, sex and side in a British population. A total of 140 shoulders (30 male and 40 female cadavers, with an average age of 81.5 years), were obtained from the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification University of Dundee, in accordance with the Human Tissue (Scotland) Act 2006. All muscles and blood vessels surrounding the glenohumeral joint, as well as the fibrous capsule, were inspected and then removed to expose the glenoid fossa with the glenoid labrum attached. The gender, age, side and presence of a sublabral foramen were double-entered into the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (Version 21; IBM, Armonk, NY, USA). Chi Square tests were conducted to determine statistical significance, which was set at P<0.05. A sublabral foramen was observed in 28.6% (n=40) of shoulders, being marginally more in females than males. A sublabral foramen was more common in elderly individuals (>70 years old), no significant difference being observed between the presence of a sublabral foramen and age. It was also more common on the right than the left side in both genders with no significant difference between the presence of a sublabral foramen and sex or side. The current observations confirm that a sublabral foramen was more common in older individuals, but was not significantly different from other age groups.

Keywords: Sublabral foramen â?? Glenoid labrum â?? Shoulder joint