Vascular foramina of navicular bone: a morphometric study

The navicular bone is supplied by more than one artery. The knowledge about the vascular foramina is important to understand the pathogenesis and management of navicular fractures. The objective of the present study is to analyze the morphology and morphometry of vascular foramina of dried human navicular bone in Indian population. The study was carried out by using 100 navicular bones (50 right and 50 left) collected from our institute and other medical institutes in and around Puducherry. The bones were macroscopically studied for vascular foramina with respect to its location, number, size, and shape. The data collected were statistically analyzed. The vascular foramina were present on dorsal, plantar, medial, and lateral surfaces of navicular bone. Kruskal-Wallis test followed by series of Mann-Whitney test for post hoc analysis showed the number of nutrient foramina observed on dorsal surface were significantly greater than those observed on the plantar (U=2,755, P=0.001), medial (U=43, P=0.001), and lateral (U=626.5, P=0.001) surfaces of the navicle. About 97.6% of foramina were circular and 2.5% were oval in appearance. About 96.7% of vascular foramina were <1 mm in size and 3.3% were ≥1 mm in size. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient done showed a strong, positive correlation between vascular foramina of <1 mm size and circular shape, which was statistically significant (rs =0.981, P=0.001). We believe the present study has provided additional information on the vascular foramina of navicular bone and useful to surgeons in foot surgeries.