Intraoperative morphometric study of gender differences in Asian femurs

Abstract

Sixty-two male and 290 female knees from the Singapore population were measured intraoperatively for anteroposterior (AP) height of both medial and lateral femoral condyles, mediolateral (ML) width, and AP/ML ratio (aspect ratio). Median AP/ML ratio for the medial condyle was 1.00 (range, 0.91-1.18) in men and 1.09 (range, 0.92-1.39) in women. Median AP/ML ratio for the lateral condyle was 0.98 (range, 0.84-1.14) in men and 1.06 (range, 0.89-1.36) in women. Both aspect ratios showed significant differences according to sex (P < .001). We conclude that women generally have narrower femurs than men for any given AP height. The aspect ratios of Asians also appear narrower than that reported in white populations.