Incidence of accessory ossicles and sesamoid bones in the feet: a radiographic study of the Turkish subjects

Most accessory ossicles and sesamoid bones of the ankle and the foot remain asymptomatic; however, they have increasingly been examined in the radiology literature, because they can cause painful syndromes or degenerative changes in response to overuse and trauma. Our aim was to document a detailed investigation on the accessory ossicles and sesamoid bones of Turkish subjects in both the feet according to the sex, frequency and division of the bones, coexistence and bilaterality by radiography. A double-centered study was performed retrospectively to determine the incidence of the accessory ossicles and sesamoid bones in the ankle and foot. Accessory ossicles (21.2%) and sesamoid bones (9.6%) were detected by Radiographs of 984 subjects. The most common accessory ossicles were accessory navicular (11.7%), os peroneum (4.7%), os trigonum (2.3%), os supranaviculare (1.6%), os vesalianum (0.4%), os supratalare (0.2%), os intermetatarseum (0.2%). We observed bipartite hallux sesamoid in 2.7% of radiographs. Interphalangeal sesamoid bone of the hallux was seen in 2% of radiographs. Incidences of metatarsophalangeal sesamoid bones were found as 0.4% in the second digit, 0.2% third digit, 0.1% fourth digit and 4.3% fifth digit. We also identified the coexistencies of two different accessory ossicles as 6%, accessory ossicles and sesamoid bones as 7%, and bipartite sesamoid bones and sesamoid bones as 1.9%. Distribution of the most common accessory ossicles in male and female subjects was similar. We reported the incidence of accessory ossicles and sesamoid bones of the feet in Turkish adult population.