Topical issues of the anatomy of bone junctions teaching

The educational topic «General anatomy of bone joints» of human anatomy in medical universities, which is key to understanding arthrology and syndesmology, is quite difficult for students to master due to serious discrepancies in the description of this section by the authors of textbooks and manuals which written on Russian Language and English Language. The purpose of this study is to compare the interpretation of the general data on bone joints of Russian-speaking and English-speaking anatomical schools in order to determine the basic differences in approaches to their study, which should be taken into account when teaching this topic to medical students. The texts of textbooks and manuals on human anatomy for students of medical universities in Russian and English served as materials for the study. Differences in approaches to the description of bone joints and in the interpretation of their main characteristics are revealed. Most Russian textbooks do not indicate exactly what type of connective tissue fibrous compounds are formed, it is not clear whether all fibrous compounds should be considered syndesmoses, or whether these are only ligaments and membranes. Classifying some joints as both complex and combined contradicts the principle of classification according to mutually exclusive features. As for the English-language educational literature, the English word «joint» is not a synonym for the Russian word «articulation» i.e. «connection between bones» and can mean any type of connection in general, in contrast to its Russian counterpart, which has a specific meaning, synonymous with the phrase «synovial connection». When describing the articular surfaces, the verbal construct «articular surfaces» is not used, only the structures that make up the joint are described. Flat joints are called «gliding joint», the movement described in them is called gliding. All these discrepancies and contradictions introduce a significant amount of misunderstanding in the course of studying the relevant topics by students, require explanations for the approaches to describing and classifying bone joints, their revision in order to increase the efficiency of studying the relevant sections and the unambiguity of their interpretation.