Greater sciatic notch in sex determination.

Abstract

Various measurements of the greater sciatic notch, e.g. width, depth and length of the posterior segment (of width) were measured, and indices I and II calculated, in 200 adult hip bones (120 males and 80 females). Total and posterior angles were measured after construction of a triangle from the above measurements in each case. Demarking points for sexing of hip bones were calculated for the above seven parameters on the lines of Jit & Singh (1966). Width and depth of the greater sciatic notch were found to be useless criteria for sexing purposes while the posterior angle was found to be the best parameter, which identified 75% of left and 88% of right male hip bones and 92% of left and 100% of right female bones. Length of the posterior segment and Index II also assigned sex to a high percentage of hip bones, especially to the female ones (95-97%), which suggests that the widening of the greater sciatic notch found in females has occurred primarily in its posterior part. The demarking points identify sex with 100% accuracy.