Incidence of Genu Valgumin Relation to Intermalleolar Distances of Adultsin Amassoma South-South Nigeria

Intermalleolar distance of 80 adults, (50 normal and30 with genu valgum) of both gender between the age bracket of 18-35years were measuredwith a caliper to establish values for analysis. All subjects are resident in Amassoma, Bayelsa State Nigeria.The mean intermalleiolar distance obtained for normal adult males was 1.79cm with a standard deviation (SD) of 0.42 and 4.56cm for females with SD of ±1.71, while the mean IMD for adult males with genu valgumwas 13.92cm with SD of ±8.64.A casual observance of the mean values of the mean IMD between males and females in the normal subjects and those with genu valgum indicated variations amongst the values. These variations were however not statistically significant between the male and female genu valgum group, while there was a statistically significant difference in the mean IMD values between normal adult males and females (P< 0.05) for both groups).It could then be concluded that a mean IMD of < 4cm and <8cm may be considered within the safe limits for males and females respectively in the normal adult population. The difference between males and females could be due to the wider pelvis in the females than in males.