title: Morphological variants of lateral meniscus of the knee: a cadaveric study in South Indian human fetuses.
abstract: In the present study, the objectives were to study the morphology of the lateral menisci (LMs) in human fetuses from a South Indian population and to verify the developmental etiology of the discoid lateral meniscus (DLM). The study included 106 fetal knee joints which were fixed in 10% formalin. After dissecting the joints, the morphological variants of the shapes of the LMs were macroscopically noted and classified as discoid and nondiscoid. The nondiscoids were subdivided into C-shaped and crescentic. The discoid lateral menisci (DLMs) were divided into complete and incomplete discoid. From our observations, 82.1% of the LMs were found to be nondiscoid. Among them, 62.3% were C-shaped and 19.8% were crescentic. The remaining 17.9% of the LMs had a discoid shape, and among these, 14.1% were incomplete discoid and 3.8% were completely discoid. Bilaterality of the discoid shape was observed in 26.6% of the cases. There was a female preponderance (11:8) among LMs with discoid morphology. In conclusion, the prevalence of DLM according to the present study was estimated as 17.9%. Our findings favor Kaplan's theory, as the majority of the fetuses of various gestational ages had nondiscoid LMs. Even the youngest fetus (CRL 88 mm, 14 weeks of gestation) exhibited a lateral tibial plateau that was incompletely covered by the meniscus, which did not exhibit a discoid shape. We believe that the DLM is anomalous and arises through variant morphogenesis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Bejai, Mangalore, 575004, India. drmanju_22@rediffmail.com
authors.forename: B V
authors.initials: BV
authors.lastname: Murlimanju
authors.forename: Narga
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nair
authors.forename: Biswabina
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ray
authors.forename: Mangala M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Pai
authors.forename: Soumya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Amin
authors.forename: Shakuntala R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Pai
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D005333:Fetus / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D008592:Menisci, Tibial / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000196:embryology*