Review of Bicipital Groove Morphology and Its Analysis in North Indian Population

The variant morphometry of bicipital groove is reported to be associated with pathologies of biceps tendon and is useful in surgical procedures in this region. The pathologies of biceps tendon are frequent causes of shoulder pain. Therefore, under the condition of paucity of data pertaining to north Indians, not only morphometric analysis of bicipital groove and a new definition of narrow/shallow groove to provide logical explanation for dependence of pathologies of biceps tendon on groove morphology is done but also a review of the literature has been carried out. Various dimensions such as lengths of medial and lateral walls, width, depth, medial wall, and opening angles including incidence of supratubercular ridge of bicipital groove from 101 humerii are 23 ± 5, 32 ± 5, 8 ± 2, 6 ± 1, 48.91 ± 10.31, 82.20 ± 22.62, and 37%, respectively. The average height along with average width of biceps tendon and average width along with average depth of bicipital groove from two cadavers are 1.8, 10.5, 11.3, and 5.5 mm, respectively. The knowledge of bicipital groove will be of paramount importance to anatomists for new data, for orthopaedic surgeons in carrying out surgical procedures in this region, and for physicians in the management of anterior shoulder pain in north Indian population.