Unusual branching pattern of external iliac artery. Case report

Abstract

During the routine dissection, a rare anomaly was observed in left lower limb of a female cadaver. The external iliac artery continued as femoral artery, branched on lateral side as the lateral circumflex femoral artery and on medial side as profunda femoris artery. On tracing the lateral circumflex femoral artery, the ascending branch towards the spinous anastomosis was very thin and coursed behind the rectus femoris muscle. The transverse and descending branches were not observed, however, the artery coursed along the vastus lateralis towards the knee. The femoral artery had its normal course and continued as popliteal artery. The profunda femoris artery originated from the medial side of the external iliac artery, initially superficial to the femoral vein, coursed downwards and posteriorly, relating posteromedial to femoral artery. The medial circumflex femoral artery originated as thin branch, which further divided into two divisions. The profunda femoris gave origin of 3 perforators and continued as 4th perforator. The unusual branching pattern was observed to be novel and not reported in the literature.