Anat Cell Biol.  2022 Mar;55(1):3-13. 10.5115/acb.21.141.

The prevalence and distribution of the variants of Gantzer’s muscle: a meta-analysis of cadaveric studies

• Asghar A
• Jha RK
• Patra A
• Chaudhary B
• Singh B

• KMID: 2527663
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5115/acb.21.141

Abstract

The Gantzer’s muscle is often present in the flexor compartment of the forearm. It lies underneath flexor digitorum superficialis and compresses the anterior interosseous nerve. Furthermore, this muscle frequently bestows an accessory muscle of flexor pollicis longus or flexor digitorum profundus, or sometimes together. The current meta-analysis aims to compute the prevalence of subtypes of Gantzer’s muscle. Major electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, etc.) were searched for title and abstract. After removing the duplicate citations, the titles/abstracts were shortlisted with the help of inclusion and exclusion criteria. The shortlisted titles/abstracts were downloaded or collected from the library. The data of all subtypes of Gantzer’s muscle were pooled from shortlisted published manuscripts for meta-analysis. The pooled estimate of other anatomical characteristics was also observed. A total of 59 cadaveric studies of sample size 5,903 were evaluated for pooled prevalence of flexor pollicis longus (accessory head). Similarly, the authors evaluated 14 studies of 1,627 upper limbs for flexor digitorum profundus (accessory head). The unit of analysis was per 100 upper limbs. The Pooled prevalence of accessory muscle of flexor pollicis longus and flexor digitorum profundus were 48% (95% CI, 44%–52%) and 17% (95% CI, 13%–21%), respectively. The Gantzer’s muscle is present in 2/3rd of the upper limbs. Accessory head of flexor pollicis longus is almost three times more common than the accessory head of flexor digitorum profundus. A classification of Gantzer’s muscle is needed to reduce the ignorance of these variants.

Keyword

Forearm; Prevalence; Hand; Skeletal muscle; Cadaver

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses flow diagram of search strategy for Gantzer’s muscle.

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  Fig. 2 Pooled weighted prevalence of accessory head of flexor pollicis longus variant. ES, effect size (log-odds ratio); CI, confidence interval; W, weight of study (inverse variance); N, sample size. a)Secondary reference was used because the data collected from secondary reference due to inaccessibility of original manuscript.

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  Fig. 3 Pooled weighted prevalence of accessory head of flexor digitorum profundus variant. ES, effect size (log-odds ratio); CI, confidence interval; W, weight of study (inverse variance); N, sample size. a)Secondary reference was used because the data collected from secondary reference due to inaccessibility of original manuscript.

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  Fig. 4 Classification of Gantzer’s muscle. ME, medial epicondyle of humerus; CP, coronoid process of ulna; FDS, flexor digitorum superficialis; ahFPL, accessory head of flexor pollicis longus; ahFDP, accessory head of flexor digitorum profundus.

Reference

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