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Determination of congenital absence of palmaris longus tendon with clinical examination and ultrasonography

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Abstract

Objectives

The tendon of the palmaris longus is commonly used as a tendon graft in many reconstructive surgeries. Palmaris longus absence (PLA) was found in 15% among individuals worldwide. In this prospective study, we aimed to conduct an incidence study in which physical examination methods were confirmed by ultrasonography in PLA, and to evaluate the relationship of absence with age, gender, laterality and dominant hand.

Methods

The study included 490 cases. They were initially tested to evaluated by physical examination using the Schaeffer’s and Hiz-Ediz test for the assessment of the palmaris longus tendon. Additional ultrasonography was performed to confirm its absence in 129 wrists of 78 cases whose tendons could not be visualized or palpated.

Results

The incidence of tendon absence was 13% by physical examination methods. According to the final results when we added ultrasonography to physical examination methods, the incidence of unilateral, bilateral and overall absence of the palmaris longus were 5%, 9% and 11% respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between individuals with and without PLA in terms of gender, side, age and dominant hand (p = 0.796, p = 0.622, p = 0.397 and p = 0.187, respectively). However, bilateral PLA was statistically significantly higher than unilateral in both genders (p = 0.011).

Conclusions

We think that agenesis should be proven accurately by ultrasonographic examination for the final result before any surgical procedure with palmaris longus tendon. Furthermore measuring the diameter of the palmaris longus tendon by preoperative ultrasonography can be useful for surgeons who plan a procedure that requires specific measurements.

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None of the authors has any financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Hitit University, Corum, Turkey

    Nurdan Fidan & Cuneyt Yucesoy

  2. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine, Hitit University, Corum, Turkey

    Ayla Caglıyan Turk

  3. Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Maltepe University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Esra Ummuhan Mermi Yetis

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  1. Nurdan Fidan
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  2. Ayla Caglıyan Turk
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  3. Esra Ummuhan Mermi Yetis
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  4. Cuneyt Yucesoy
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Contributions

NF: Project development, Data Collection, Manuscript writing. ACT: Data Collection. EUMY: Data Collection. CY: Critical revision of the article.

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Correspondence to Nurdan Fidan.

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Fidan, N., Turk, A.C., Yetis, E.U.M. et al. Determination of congenital absence of palmaris longus tendon with clinical examination and ultrasonography. Surg Radiol Anat 43, 741–748 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-020-02597-2

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