Anthropometric Study of the Radiocapitellar Joint

Purpose: There is scant knowledge about the relationship between the size of the radial head and the size of the capitellum. Also, no data exist comparing the size of the capitellum between the left and the right elbow.

Methods: Eight pairs of elbows and 12 single elbows from fresh-frozen cadavers were obtained for this study. The vertical height and anterior width of the capitellum were measured with digital calipers. Four different measurements were performed at the radial head: longest outer diameter, shortest outer diameter, the long dish diameter, and short dish diameter. The Pearson intrarater intraclass correlation coefficients were obtained for all measurements.

Results: For the paired elbows, the correlations ranged between 0.95 and 0.96 for the capitellar dimensions and 0.77 and 0.98 for the radial head dimensions. The correlations between the long outer diameter of the radial head with the vertical height and the anterior width of the capitellum were 0.8 and 0.9, respectively.

Conclusions: There is a high correlation between the long outer diameter of the radial head and the vertical height of the capitellum as well its anterior width. There is also a high correlation between the left and the right elbow.

Clinical relevance: These findings are relevant to radiocapitellar arthroplasty and may be useful for radiocapitellar prosthetic design as well as in the preoperative planning of cases in which the radial head and/or the capitellum is destroyed.