The palmaris longus muscle: A surface study of the population of North Cyprus

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this research is to determine the frequency of surface anatomical variations of palmaris longus (PL) muscle in the population of North Cyprus and their association with gender, body side, and hand dominance. Materials and Methods: The presence of PL was determined in 1280 subjects (660 females and 620 males) using four testing methods; Schaeffer's test, the Thompson's test, Pushpakumar's test and the Bhattacharya's test. Where the presence of the PL could not be determined by any of these tests, palpation was performed as the final confirmatory test. Results: The overall frequency of absence was 17.4%. Female subjects showed a higher frequency of absence of 10.6% compared to males (6.8%). The absence was more likely to occur in the non-dominant hand. In those that had the PL, there were 28 (2.6%) cases of a split tendon and 3 cases (0.2%) of a laterally displaced tendon of the PL. Conclusion: The overall frequency of absence of PL in North Cyprus was 17.4% and absence is more likely to occur in females, on the left side and in the non-dominant hand. Other variations recorded are the split tendons and laterally displaced tendons.

The Incidence of Palmaris Longus Muscle and Its Association with the Biodemographic Data of Medical and Allied Health Science Students

“…The appearance of the PL muscle was commonly reported to be variable in population, races and hereditary traits [8], [9], [22]- [24]. In our study, the palmaris longus muscle was present in 253 subjects (94.1%).…”

“…It would be safe to say, the absence of palmaris longus muscle tendon is lower in Africans. Moderate value of the muscle's absence was reported in Punjabi population (11.3%) [24], southeastern United States (14%) [21] and in North Cyprus (17.4%) [9]. Other studies reported higher prevalence 31.05% in Turkish subjects [20], 28% in Palestine subjects [34], and 40.5% in Saudi Arabia [8].…”

“…Owing to the muscle's superficial location, length, diameter, and the unobstructed functionality of the upper limb if the PL is removed, it can be used for reconstructive surgeries, tendon transfer and tendon surgeries [7]. It is also used by plastic surgeons in treatment of facial paralysis, lip augmentation, restoration of lip and chin defects and in repairing ptosis [8], [9]. In addition, the PL tendon can also be harvested to repair arthritis of the thumb and to repair oncologic defects of the head and neck [10].…”

“…The Palmaris Longus muscle is commonly reported to be absent in women [4], [12]. Right hand dominance is reported to be more common with about 70-90% of people being right-handed [9], [15].…”

“…Globally, attempts have been made to correlate the absence of Palmaris longus with ethnicity [6], [18], median nerve [7], gender [4], [19], body side [9], [20], age [8], [9] and dominant hand [15]. Only a few studies associated the muscle's absence with some or all of these parameters.…”