Background: To assess a correlation between forearm length and palmarislongus tendon length in the cadavers of Indian population. A preoperative knowledge on the length of the tendon to be harvested can help a surgeon for better planning of the surgery. Methods: We dissected 84 forearms with 42 pairs of fresh frozen cadavers of Indian origin. The forearm length was measured with a measuring tape. The length and width of the tendon was measured using digital calipers. Student’s ‘t’ test was applied to analyze the data and P value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Age, sex and side of the cadavers were noted. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was applied to find out the correlation between the forearm length & the length and the width of the palmaris longus tendon. Forearms with absence of palmaris longus or with congenital anomaly or previously operated were excluded from the study. Results: Out of the 42 fresh frozen cadavers with 84 pairs of forearm, one cadaver had bilateral absence of palmarislongus. Hence, 41 cadavers with 82 forearms were studied. There were 46 male and 36 female forearms with mean age of 69.3± 6.7 years for males and 72.1± 7.3 years for females. The mean lengths of the palmaris longus tendons were 175.18±12.12 mm in males and 165.75 ±12.30 mm in females. The mean lengths of the forearms were 268.94 ± 11.74 mm in males and 261.23 ± 12.91 mm infemales. A significant correlation was found in between the lengths of the tendon and the forearm in males (r =0.62; p <0.05), females (r=0.598; p <0.05) and for combined males and females (r= 0.651; p< 0.05). Conclusion: Our study helps the surgeon to plan the incision site based on the forearm length in Indian population.

Keywords: Palmaris Longus Tendon; Forearm Length; Fresh Frozen Cadavers; Indian Population; Preoperative Plan.