A Roentgen Graphic Study of Wrist Joint for Age Determination in Sholapur Region of South Maharashtra (India)

In law the crime and punishment is entirely based on criminal responsibility and this in turn is dependent on the age of a person. Law in many legal matters requires estimation of age, especially when age of accused or victim is in question for framing of charges by the law enforcement agencies. Estimation of skeletal age from radiographs is a matter of everyday occurrence in every part of world. The age of ossification of different centers at wrist joint i.e. Carpals and lower end of radius and ulna, have been studied at Sholapur. The study was carried out in the department of Anatomy at Dr. V. M. Medical College, Sholapur on 250 healthy subjects, free from obvious musculoskeletal, nutritional and endocrine disorders in the age group of 0-20. Capitate and hamate were the first (during infancy) and pisiform (13.7 + 1.10 years) was last to appear. Ossification of 8 carpals and centers for lower end of radius and ulna respectively have definite relation with age and can be considered as a good indicator for age estimation.