Table 2. (continued)
Author | Year | Source | Method | Country | No. of knees | No. of fabellae | Reported prevalence rate (*100) | Adjusted rate (*100)
|
Zeng et al. | 2012 | 28 | X-ray | South Africa | 146 | 22 | 15.07 | 15.07 |
Kato et al. | 2012 | 29 | X-ray | Macedonia | 60 | 8 | 13.33 | 13.33 |
Tabira et al. | 2012 | 30 | Anatomical | Japan | 150 | 122 | 81.33 | 81.33 |
Dodevski et al. | 2012 | 31 | Anatomical | Thailand | 372 | 144 | 38.71 | 38.71 |
Damon | 2012 | 32 | Anatomical | Japan | 102 | 70 | 68.63 | 68.63 |
Piyawinijwong et al. | 2012 | 33 | Anatomical | China | 61 | 53m | 86.89 | 86.89 |
Chew et al.n | 2014 | 34 | X-ray | Asians | – | – | – | – |
Chew et al.n | 2014 | 34 | MRI | Asians | – | – | – | – |
Hauser et al. | 2015 | 35 | Anatomical | Central Europe | 400 | 105 | 26.25 | 26.25 |
Upasna et al. | 2016 | 36 | Anatomical | India | 40 | 5 | 12.5 | 12.5 |
Mohite et al. | 2016 | 37 | Anatomical | Indian | 60 | 8 | 13.33 | 13.33 |
Jin et al. | 2017 | 38 | X-ray | Turkey | 1000 | 190 | 19 | 19 |
Ghimire et al. | 2017 | 39 | X-ray | Nepal | 155 | 19 | 12.26 | 12.26 |
Hedderwick et al. | 2017 | 40 | MRI | New Zealand | 25 | 14 | 56 | 56 |
Hedderwick et al. | 2017 | 40 | Anatomical | New Zealand | 28 | 8 | 28.57 | 28.57 |
Egerci et al. | 2017 | 41 | Anatomical | Japan | 16 | 9 | 56.25 | 56.25 |
Corvalan et al. | 2018 | 42 | Anatomical | Australia | 111 | 63 | 56.76 | 56.76 |
Ortega & Olave | 2018 | 43 | X-ray | Chile | 400 | 125 | 31.25 | 31.25 |
Tatagari et al. | 2018 | 44 | Anatomical | USA | 182 | 52 | 28.57 | 28.57 |
This study | 2018 | CT scans | Korea | 212 | 94 | 44.34 | 44.34 |
- a Location: Alsace: Germany at the time, now France.
- b 67/529 individuals had fabellae.
- c Estimated 72 fabellae based on an prevalence rate of 17.6%.
- d Estimated 145 fabellae based on an prevalence rate of 14.5%.
- e When translated from characters, the spelling could be Ooi or Oi.
- f Reported location was Aino, taken from Hessen (1946).
- g Reported location was Hokuriku-Japaner.
- h Estimated 83 fabellae based on an prevalence rate of 28.42%.
- i Hessen had 96. Sutro had 81 patients with at least one fabella. 106 patients had roentgenograms of both knees, 16 were bilateral. Therefore, there are 97 fabellae in total.
- j 11/31 individuals had fabellae.
- k Estimated 18 fabellae based on an prevalence rate of 27%.
- l Reports on fabellae in medial head – ignored here, as it is unusually high, particularly given the lack of medial fabellae in other studies.
- m Reports a couple of medial fabellae – not possible to tease them out, prevalence rate may be too high.
- n Prevalence rate of 31.25% (25/80) for individual. Unknown if one or two knees were inspected per individual.
- Sources: 1Hessen, 1946; 2Parsons & Keith, 1897; 3Pancoast, 1909; 4Loth, 1931; 5Yano, 1928; 6Kaneko, 1966; 7Bircher & Oberholzer, 1934; 8Sutro et al. 1935; 9Lungmuss, 1954; 10Schönbauer, 1956; 11Kojima, 1958; 12Falk, 1963; 13Johnson & Brogdon, 1982; 14Miaskieqicz & Partyka 1934; 15Sudasna & Harnsiriwattanagit, 1990; 16Chihlas et al. 1993; 17Hagihara et al. 1993; 18Terry & LaPrade, 1996; 19Yu et al. 1996; 20De Maeseneer et al. 2001; 21Munshi et al. 2003; 22Minowa et al. 2004; 23Kawashima et al. 2007; 24Raheem et al. 2007; 25Lencina, 2007; 26Silva et al. 2010; 27Phukubye & Oyedele, 2011; 28Zeng et al. 2012; 29Kato et al. 2012; 30Tabira et al. 2012; 31Dodevski et al. 2012; 32Damon, 2012; 33Piyawinijwong et al. 2012; 34Chew et al. 2014; 35Hauser et al. 2015; 36Upasna et al. 2016; 37Mohite et al. 2016; 38Jin et al. 2017; 39Ghimire et al. 2017; 40Hedderwick et al. 2017; 41Egerci et al. 2017; 42Corvalan et al. 2018; 43Ortega & Olave, 2018; 44Tatagari et al. 2018.
50 years old were no more or less likely to have a fabella than were individuals > 50 years old (younger = 23/94, older = 35/118, v2 = 0.7099, P = 4448).
In this study, fabellae ranged in size from small (just a few pixels) to large (Fig. 1). In general, fabellae did not appear to articulate with the lateral femoral condyle. However, the CT scans were acquired postmortem, and soft tissues were severely deformed in most individuals, making it possible that some fabellae would have articulated with the condyle in life but were separated in death. Some large fabellae were still articulated with the posterior surface of the lateral femoral condyle, the most drastic of which was observed in female 005 (Fig. 2), which shows a large articulating surface in the femur.
Systematic review
Our searches revealed 2631 abstracts on fabella prevalence rates between 1875 and 2018, written in seven languages (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and