CLINICAL IMPORTANCE OF THE OS TIBIALE EXTERNUM, OR ACCESSORY TARSAL SCAPHOID

Abstract

The frequency of supernumerary bones about the foot is not generally known, nor their significance well appreciated. In various special journals attention has been called to these anatomic abnormalities, but as a whole the medical profession is uninformed in regard to them, and therefore possibilities of mistakes in diagnosis still exist. The occurrence or presence of these extra bones has been known to anatomists for many years and their discovery was not dependent on the advent of the roentgen ray. They were discovered in the dissecting room. Vesalius in 1555, Bauhin in 1605 and Rosenmuller in 1804 described several of these accessory bones from anatomic dissections. The special abnormality to which I call attention is the so-called os tibiale externum, or accessory scaphoid, first described by Bauhin in 1605. This bone has been confused with what was thought to be a sesamoid fibrocartilage in the tendon of the tibialis posticus