(634.13) Difficulties Performing Morphometric Assessment on the Costal Cartilage-Rib Interface in Cadaveric Research

Poster Board Number: C88
Introduction: AAA has separate poster presentation times for odd and even posters.
Odd poster #s – 10:15 am – 11:15 am
Even poster #s – 11:15 am – 12:15 pm

Zachary Gumble (West Virginia University School of Medicine), Alexys Bolden (West Virginia University School of Medicine), Fatemah Alsharaf (West Virginia University School of Medicine), Jesse Burkett (West Virginia University School of Medicine), H. Wayne Lambert (West Virginia University School of Medicine), Matthew Zdilla (West Virginia University School of Medicine)

Costal cartilage is commonly used in a variety of reconstructive surgeries such as reconstruction of head and neck anatomy. However, there is disagreement among surgeons regarding the most appropriate costal cartilage from which to harvest (e.g., 5th cartilage versus 6th or 7th; left versus right side). Thus, assessment of costal cartilage morphometry is warranted. In an attempt to assess costal cartilage morphometry in a cadaveric sample, researchers encountered noteworthy inter-examiner disagreement. This report details the difficulties encountered when attempting to perform morphometric assessment costal cartilage in a cadaveric sample. It is well-established that the hyaline cartilage of the rib cage commonly undergoes calcific change with age; however, such changes were not appreciable in the cadaveric sample that was assessed. Predominantly, difficulties were encountered in the identification of the cartilage-bone interface. The disagreement among examiners primarily stemmed from the nature of the costal cartilage and rib color. Some cadaveric specimens had a clear cartilage-bone interface with evident gross color change between cartilage and bone tissues whereas other cadaveric specimens had relatively little color change between cartilage and bone. This research highlights the importance of cadaveric tissue color in research and underscores an important caveat: incongruent data may result if tissue color is not accounted for in cadaveric research.

West Virginia University Research Apprenticeship Program (WVU RAP) supported the work of author (ZG) on this project.