Reconstruction of Length of Humerus from its Fragments and its Medicolegal Importance

Objective: In Medicolegal cases, the skeletal remains presented to Anatomists and Forensic experts are often fragmentary and asked to pronounce an opinion in order to establish a possible identity. For this reason the present study is undertaken on the samples of vidarbha region of Maharashtra with the object to estimate the length of the humerus from its various fragments and then the stature can be estimated by using the multiplication factor.

Material&Method: The material consists of 167 adult human humeri from dissection hall cadavers of Govt. Medical College, Nagpur. Measurements of total length of humerus and its various fragments were taken on the osteometric board. In order to compare the measurements the humerus was divided in to four segments: A-B, A-C, C-E and D- E. The Range, Mean, S.D. , percentile length, co-efficient of correlation and Regression equations for each segments were calculated. With the help of regression equation, the length of humerus was estimated.

Results: The co-efficient of correlation obtained for all the segments is statistically significant. The total length of humerus calculated from segment I (A-B) and segment IV (D-E) by regression equations showed an average error of 1.5 cms. and from segment II (A-C) and segment III (C-E) showed an error less than 1 cm.

Conclusion: The Regression formulae can be used to estimate the length of humerus from its segments. The accuracy of regression equations of each segment in calculating the length of humerus in this region is very high.