Lanka Ranaweera

• BSc., PG Dip. PhD
• Senior Lecturer at Faculty of Medicine, university of Kelaniya

Located only a short distance off the southernmost shore of the Greater Indian subcontinent, the island of Sri Lanka has long been inhabited by various ethnic populations. Mainly comprising the Vedda, Sinhalese (Up- and Low-country) and Tamil (Sri Lankan and Indian); their history of settlements on the island and the biological relationships among...

Introduction:The human hand occupies a unique position in evolution. The lumbrical muscles, one of the major constituents of intrinsic musculature in hand, play significantly greater role in the precision movements of the fingers. There are four cylindrical lumbrical muscles which rise from the four tendons of flexor digitorumprofundus (FDP) in the...

Sri Lanka is a small island in the Indian Ocean, located close to the southern tip of the mainland India. Easy accessibility to the island from all the parts might leads to heterogeneous social composition, which is reflected in the different ethnic groups, religious faiths and tongues. Besides the mutually exclusive Vedda people, the Sinhalese and...

The existence of an indigenous community within a country is a source of pride and warrants significant attention. Sri Lanka is no exception, and, as a country with the fossil remains of anatomically modern Homo sapiens, it is hypothesized that Sri Lankan Indigenous people might harbor ancient genetic signatures. This study aims to establish baseli...

Sri Lanka, an island off the tip of the Southeast of the Indian subcontinent processes the earliest skeletal evidence of anatomically modern Homo sapiens (37,000 B.P.) and the best human skeletal record sequence in the South Asian region. Adding another to the list, the skeletal remains, which belong to Mesolithic culture were found at Pallemalala...

The aim of this study was to identify morphological and morphometric variations of pulmonary fi ssures. A sample of 50 adult formalin fi xed Sri Lankan cadaveric lungs (24 left and 26 right lungs) were observed with the help of magnifying glass and length measurements of the lung fi ssures were taken using a measuring tape. Complete oblique fi ssur...

Introduction: Lumbricals are the small, worm-like, intrinsic muscles responsible for performing the precision pinch movements of the hand. These are quite unique in their position owing to movable proximal and distal tendon attachments. Purpose of the study: The aim of the study was to identify anomalies of lumbrical muscle present in the Sri Lanka...

Anatomy is the foundation stone of medical education. The COVID 19 pandemic imposed unexpected disruption to Anatomy education with most universities moving regular onsite classes to the online session. The purpose of this study was to identify the perceptions of Ayurveda medical students regarding virtual or online Anatomy learning. The study...

Sex estimation from human skeletal remains is of vital importance in the buildup of a biological profile of an individual in medico-legal and bioarchaeological studies. The present study is focused on the estimation of sex from osteometric measurements of the complete femur and its fragmentary parts, and the development of a web based application r...

Arterial blood supply of kidney is carried out via a pair of renal arteries which are the direct branches of abdominal aorta. In a routine dissection of a 72 year old male cadaver at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka a variation of two hilar arteries with one inferior polar artery of right kidney was observed. This deviatio...

Blood supply to the diaphysis of long bones is majorly through nutrient artery, which enters the bone via nutrient foramen. The present study aims to identify morphological and morphometric variations of nutrient foramina of the femur, which is the largest long bone of the body extending from the pelvis to knee. A sample of 81 Sri Lankan adult femu...

Sports and physical activity has long been used as a tool to improve mental, physical and social well-being. There is a strong scientific evidence that physical inactivity is a major risk factor for non communicable diseases such as coronary heart disease, cancers and diabetes. Therefore, it is good to promote the healthy lifestyle choices among un...

Taekwondo is the art of self-defense characterized especially by the extensive use of kicks. The purpose of this study was to identify the injury profile of female taekwondo athletes participated in the National Sports Festival 2017. Seventy one female athletes representing all nine provinces of the country participated in the tournament. Out of 71...

BACKGROUND: Taekwondo is a Korean martial art that had been growing in popularity in Sri Lanka and internationally. Although studies have examined injuries in other non-contact sports, to date, no published medical study has examined injuries in taekwondo competitions in Sri Lanka. The purpose of this study was to identify the injury profile in the...

BACKGROUND: Taekwondo is a Korean martial art that had been growing in popularity in Sri Lanka and internationally. Although studies have examined injuries in other non-contact sports, to date, no published medical study has examined injuries in taekwondo competitions in Sri Lanka. The purpose of this study was to identify the injury profile in the...

Introduction: The mammalian thoracic duct is the main lymphatic channel which drains lymph from the distal extremities of the trunk, lower limbs and the left half of the proximal trunk. In humans, it runs a typical course commencing over the twelfth thoracic vertebra and ascends through the aortic orifice of the diaphragm. It inclines to the left a...

Morphology of the Thyroid Gland and its common variations The thyroid gland is an endocrine gland located in the anterior triangle of the neck across the midline. Many pathological conditions such as tumours and inflammatory diseases are associated with the thyroid gland. The incidence of thyroid diseases, with or without an indication for surgical...