Incidence of rhomboid impression and subclavian groove in the adult human clavicles

Abstract

Anthropology has been widely explored mainly when related to bones due to its morphologic characteristics, such as the rhomboid fossa and subclavian groove of the clavicle. The aim of this study was to examine the incidence of the rhomboid impression and also the subclavian groove in clavicles. Materials and methods: 70 clavicles (40 right and 30 left) were collected from the Department of Anatomy, Teerthanker Mahaveer Medical College and Research Center and used for the study. Rhomboid impression was studied as per AJE Cave classification. Rhomboid impression and subclavian groove were also assessed as absent, small, medium or large in terms of area as per L.J Ray recommendation. Results: We found that the most predominant type of rhomboid impresson was flat rough type (40%) and least one was elevated smooth (2.9%) or elevated rough (2.9%). Size of the impression was small, medium and large in 37.1%, 30% and 33% clavicles respectively. Most of the right clavicles presented large and left clavicles presented small sized impression. Subclavian goove was absent in 15.7% and present in 84.3% clavicles. Most of the right and left clavicles showed predominance of small sized subclavian groove (42.5% and 40% respectively). Conclusion: The side differences in the incidence of the rhomboid fossa and subclavian groove could be found in this study. The genderwise variation can be further analysed to corroborate sex determination of unidentified bodies in forensic medicine. These morphological skeletal traits are also of great value for anthropologists and anatomists.