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Connection between medial dorsal cutaneous nerve and saphenous nerve: case report

  • Anatomic Variations
  • Published:
Surgical and Radiologic Anatomy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

There are no data on the connection of the saphenous nerve (SN), located on the medial side of the foot, with the terminal branches of the superficial fibular nerve. The aim of this study is to reveal the variation that surgeons should pay attention to for anesthesia applied in foot surgeries.

Methods

In this study, the left foot of a 70-year-old female cadaver fixed with formalin was dissected. The distance to the medial malleolus and the incision line was recorded using digital caliper to determine the reference points in the resulting variation.

Results

It was observed that a branch from the SN, which arose from the SN and proceeded anteriorly to the upper part of the medial malleolus and continued towards the dorsum of the foot, hooked with a branch from the medial dorsal cutaneous nerve (MDCN). The branches arising from this hook were distributed on the medial edge of the foot up to the proximal metatarsophalangeal joint I. The distance of this nerve connection to the medial malleolus is 91.14 mm, and the distance to the incision line is 15.76 mm.

Conclusions

It is suggested that the case presented as an unusual SN variation, which may affect the success of local anesthesia in invasive procedures to the medial part of the foot and could be considered in the evaluation of sensory loss after anteromedial surgical approach to the ankle, should be included in the classification of the cutaneous innervation pattern of the foot.

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Availability of data and materials

The material used in the study was obtained from the inventory of Anatomy Department Laboratory of Mersin University.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Niğde Ömer Halisdemir University, Niğde, Türkiye

    Fatih Çiçek

  2. Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University, Kahramanmaraş, Türkiye

    Turan Koç

  3. Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Mersin University, Mersin, Türkiye

    Zeliha Kurtoğlu Olgunus

Authors
  1. Fatih Çiçek
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  2. Turan Koç
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  3. Zeliha Kurtoğlu Olgunus
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Contributions

All the authors contributed to the study conception and design. Project development, data collection, manuscript writing by FÇ, data collection by TK, and manuscript writing by ZKO. The first draft of the manuscript was written by FÇ and all the authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fatih Çiçek.

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Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflict of interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Ethics approval

This study in no way involves the use of live subjects or animals. This is a cadaver study and this study was approved by Mersin University Ethics Committee (Approval number: 2021–96). All the procedures performed in this cadaveric study comply with the ethical standards of the Institutional Review Board and the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The authors sincerely thank those who donated their bodies to science so that anatomical research can be done. Results from such research can potentially increase humanity’s general knowledge, which in turn can improve patient care. Therefore, these donors and their families deserve our greatest gratitude.

Consent to participate

The study has been approved by the Board of Ethics of Mersin University (approval number: 2021–96).

Consent for publication

All the authors (FÇ, TK, ZKO) read the manuscript and have approved the content of the article and agree to present the article in “Surgical and Radiologic Anatomy” for publication.

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Çiçek, F., Koç, T. & Olgunus, Z.K. Connection between medial dorsal cutaneous nerve and saphenous nerve: case report. Surg Radiol Anat 45, 1233–1237 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-023-03214-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-023-03214-8

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