title: Femoral head diameter in the Malaysian population.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Hip arthroplasty is commonly performed worldwide. The objective of this study was to determine the diameter of the femoral head in the Malaysian population in relation to gender and race (i.e. among Malay, Chinese and Indian patients).
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a retrospective cross-sectional study performed between January 1995 and December 2006, evaluating the femoral head diameters of all patients aged 50 years and above who underwent hemiarthroplasty at two major hospitals in Malaysia.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 945 femoral heads (663 women, 282 men) were evaluated. The mean age of the patients in our cohort was 75.2 ± 9.4 (range 50-101) years. The mean femoral head diameter (with intact articular cartilage) was 44.9 ± 3.2 (range 38-54) mm. In our study, men had a significantly larger mean femoral head diameter than women (47.7 ± 2.8 mm vs. 43.7 ± 2.4 mm; p < 0.05). Patients of Chinese ethnicity were also found to have significantly larger femoral head diameters, when compared among the three races studied (p < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Malaysians have a mean femoral head diameter of 44.9 ± 3.2 mm. Among our patients, Chinese patients had a significantly larger femoral head size than Malay and Indian patients. We also found that, in our cohort, men had significantly larger femoral head diameters than women.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Chee Kean
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Mun Keong
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Kwan
authors.forename: Azhar Mahmood
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Merican
authors.forename: Wuey Min
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.forename: Lim Beng
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Saw
authors.forename: Kok Kheng
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Teh
authors.forename: Manoharan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Krishnan
authors.forename: Ramanathan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ramiah
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D019644:Arthroplasty, Replacement, Hip; D044466:Asian People; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005270:Femur Head / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008296:Malaysia; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values; D012189:Retrospective Studies