Anatomia, Volume 2, Issue 3 (September 2023) – 10 articles

Femoral shaft fractures (FSFs) are common orthopedic injuries, often resulting from high-energy trauma such as motor vehicle collisions, low-energy trauma, osteoporosis, or pathological conditions. They account for a significant portion of long bone fractures. Radiologic imaging plays a pivotal role in the diagnosis of these fractures, providing crucial information about fracture characteristics, associated injuries, and successful treatment and management planning. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the anatomy, pathophysiology, and classification systems of FSFs. Diagnostic imaging modalities, including radiograph, computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and their essential roles are highlighted, driving treatment and management as well as prognosis for FSFs and illuminating the anatomical considerations that influence the choice of approach and fixation techniques. Radiological diagnosis and imaging of FSFs are vital for orthopedic surgeons, radiologists, and healthcare professionals involved in the care of patients with these injuries and optimizing patient outcomes. Full article

Medical educators face many challenges instructing future medical students, specifically in the integration of learning technologies. To overcome these challenges, educators must implement learner-centered and interactive teaching strategies. Anatomical sciences are the cornerstone of medical education and provide the bedrock to layer conceptual understanding of the human body. With the “medical knowledge boom”, most medical schools have reduced the curricular time for anatomy instruction, resulting in a paucity of knowledge and issues incorporating anatomical knowledge in clinical scenarios. Modern pedagogical techniques combining AI chatbots with concurrent metacognitive frameworks can foster a deeper understanding of anatomical knowledge and analysis of clinical cases. Student reflection on the learning process allows for monitoring their progress and tailoring of learning strategies to their specific capabilities and needs. A.I. technology can aid in scaffolding knowledge with practical applications via iterative and immediate feedback in case- or problem-based learning formats. The use of textual conversations actively engages students and simulates conversations with instructors. In this communication, we advocate for the incorporation of AI technologies fused with a metacognitive framework as a medium to foster increased critical thinking and skill development that enhances comprehension. These skills are important for medical students’ lifelong learning process. Full article

Ludwig Henry Bojanus was born on 16 July 1776 in Buchsweiler, Alsace. After studying in Jena and Vienna, L. H. Bojanus enrolled at the University of Jena for his doctoral studies. Bojanus’s scientific activities are closely associated with Vilnius, where he was a professor of veterinary medicine from 1806 (he was elected to this position in 1804). In 1815, he became a professor of comparative anatomy. These were the times of the greatest flourishing of Vilnius University, where the foundations of modern Polish science were being laid. At Vilnius University, he established a technical and anatomical-pathological office for the zoo, a veterinary clinic and a model forge for shoeing horses in 1823. Bojanus founded a veterinary school in Vilnius and drew up a plan for a veterinary institute, which was not opened until 1832, simultaneously with the opening of the medico-surgical academy. He became known as one of Europe’s most prominent anatomists and zoologists. A lasting memorial to the scientist is the monograph “Anatomy of the Tortoise”, which many scholars still point to today as a model of accurate and precise anatomical research. He was the first to identify the anatomical differences between the European bison (Bos bonasus) and the aurochs (Bos primigenius). In his lectures on comparative anatomy, Bojanus presented the principle of uninterrupted development. He can be described as one of the most decisive and consistent evolutionists before Darwin. He died in 1827. Full article

Tumor staging of prostate cancer is a fundamental principle in management and therapy, with a hallmark being tumor growth beyond the organ boundary. Often, this is referred to as “capsule penetration”, suggesting the existence of a true prostatic capsule that would facilitate the determination of tumor penetration. In fact, the prostate does not have a true capsule and, depending on the anatomic area, it blends with the surrounding fibrous, adipose and muscular tissue. This makes it sometimes difficult or impossible to unequivocally identify extraprostatic tumor extension. It is necessary to appreciate this difficulty in order to better understand the significance of extraprostatic tumor extension. Full article

Intraorbital and transorbital injuries are included in the group of head injuries with low frequency. In particular, such injuries rarely result in infectious processes in the brain parenchyma. This case presents a case where a 57-year-old man reported to the neurosurgery department that he had sustained an injury to the conjunctiva of the upper eyelid a month earlier. The patient was injured by a tree branch, which he removed on his own initiative. After persistent eye abduction palsy, an MRI was performed, which showed a compressive mass in the frontal lobe of the brain. A surgical procedure was indicated, which found a piece of twig 3 mm long inside the abscess. Surgical intervention and antibiotic therapy led to the complete recovery of the patient. Full article

Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is a recent and minimally invasive method of partial prostate ablation. However, knowledge of the essential landmarks of prostate anatomy is crucial to achieving safe and effective partial ablation by IRE. High-quality imaging of the prostate is essential before the procedure. The individual morphological pattern of the prostate must be taken into account and detailed mapping with measurement of the lesion is necessary to determine optimal needle placement. The entire tumour volume must be covered while ensuring the safety of critical anatomical structures such as the rectum, urethra, nerve bundles and sphincter muscle. Full article

Tissue engineering is a powerful tool with which to systematically identify the determinants of biological functions. Applied to the design and fabrication of biomimetic brains, tissue engineering serves to disentangle the complex anatomy of neural circuits and pathways by recapitulating structure-function relationships in simplified model systems. The complex neuroanatomy of the cerebral cortex, with its enigmatic columnar and stratified cytoarchitectonic organization, represents a major challenge toward isolating the minimal set of elements that are required to assemble neural tissues with cognitive functions. Whereas considerable efforts have highlighted important genetic and physical correlates of early cortical tissue patterning, no substantive attempt to identify the determinants of how the cortices acquire their relatively conserved, narrow range of numbered layers is evident in the literature. Similarly, it is not yet clear whether cortical columns and laminae are functionally relevant or epiphenomena of embryonic neurodevelopment. Here, we demonstrate that spatial frequencies (m⁻¹) derived from the width-to-height ratios of cerebral cortical columns predict sinusoids with a narrow range of spatial cycles over the average cortical thickness. The resulting periodicities, denoted by theoretical wavenumbers, reflect the number of observed cortical layers among humans and across several other species as revealed by a comparative anatomy approach. We present a hypothesis that cortical columns and their periodic layers are emergent of the intrinsic spatial dimensions of neurons and their nested, self-similar aggregate structures including minicolumns. Finally, we discuss the implications of periodic tissue patterns in the context of neural tissue engineering. Full article

This article focuses on Jean Cruveilhier and particularly on his book Anatomie descriptive, which was a great success during the author’s lifetime. (Notwithstanding this, it is pertinent to point out that the five editions of Anatomie descriptive were surpassed in number by others of the Cruveilhier’s creations, such as Anatomie pathologique and Traité d’Anatomie pathologique.) Unlike other texts of the time and later, Anatomie descriptive presents the anatomy of the human body in a way that can be applied both by students and medical professionals. The objectives of Anatomie descriptive were to make understand how the functions of an organ can be inferred from its structure, and to encourage students and professionals to investigate the anatomical origin of health and disease phenomena. Depending on which sections of the book, the parts of the body were described with morphological, topographic or functional criteria. Many of Cruveilhier’s contributions influenced anatomical eponymy and keep today’s Terminologia Anatomica alive. All of this has made consider Jean Cruveilhier the most outstanding anatomist in France of the first half of the nineteenth century. Due to the scientific rigor Cruveilhier always applied and asked to be applied in the investigation of the anatomic changes linked to pathological processes, he could certainly be considered a predecessor of the objectivity sought by evidence-based medicine. Full article

Clefts of the lip or palate (CLPs) are the most common craniofacial birth defect, with a worldwide incidence of ~1 in 700 live births. The objective of this study is to assess the characteristics of the nasopharyngeal airway in growing vs. non-growing cleft lip/palate subjects and compare them with normal subjects. This retrospective study analyzed eighty-seven scans of three groups from cone beam computed tomography (CBCT). The cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans were coded and landmarks were identified using a Dolphin three-dimensional (3D) imaging software server (version 11.7; Patterson Dental Supply, Chatsworth, Calif). All values showed strong measurement reliability (>80), except for the nasopharynx measurement. Regarding gender difference, for the nasopharynx, female subjects (1261.32 ± 713.94) showed the lowest significant values in non-growing unilateral compared to males (6496.8 ± 2987) at p = 0.008. For oropharynx, in the growing bilateral cleft group, male subjects (13,046.79 ± 5521.89) showed a significant difference (p = 0.046) compared to females (8468.98 ± 4279.99). MP-SN, B, A, SNA., SN.B., and ANS-ME showed significant differences for cephalometric parameters (p < 0.05). Despite significant differences in linear and angular measurements, volumetric airway measurements showed no significant differences in the growing groups. For non-growing cleft subjects, the cleft anomaly significantly affected the nasal cavity and left maxillary sinus volumes. Full article