ABSTRACT

Study Design:

Quantitative anatomic

Background Data:

There is no anatomical comparative study between human versus calf first sacral vertebra in English literatüre.

Purpose:

To determine quantitative anatomic data of the first sacral vertebra of calf and compare to the human cadaver.

Material and Methods:

3 linear and 2 angular parameters were obtained from twelve fresh frozen calves (2 years old) first sacral vertebras and compared twelve female human cadaver measurements. Anterior-posterior width of S1 pedicle (W), pedicle length (XP), cephalad-caudad height of S1 pedicle (H), transverse (T°) and sagittal (S°) angle of S1 pedicle were measured. The measurements between calf and human specimens for each parameter were compared with using a two-tailed Student t test.

Results:

The mean cephalad-caudad height of pedicle (H) were measured 13.6 ± 2.3 mm in the human and 44.4 ± 4.34 mm in the calf (p<0.05). Anterior-posterior width (W) of the S1 pedicle was measured as 22.5 ± 2.6 mm on an average in the human. In the calf, width was measured as 26.02 ± 1.95 mm (p<0.05). The mean length of S1 pedicle (XP) was measured 50.7± 3.7mm in the human, and 76.1 ± 4.3 mm in the calf (p<0.05). The mean S and T angles of S1 pedicle were measured 19° ± 2.9° and 43° ± 2.3°, respectively in the human. In the calf, the mean S and T angles were 16.37° ± 2.5° and 44.04° ± 5.84°, respectively. There was a statistical significant difference between human and calf mean sacral T angles (p< 0.05). However, there was no statistical differences between mean S angles (p>0.05).

Conclusion:

Although there were some statistical differences between the human and calf S1 vertebras, the good comparability with the human spine encourage the use of the two years old calf S1 spine as a model for human sacral spine research.