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A rare bifurcation of the external iliac artery into femoral and deep femoral arteries

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A Correction to this article was published on 01 October 2022

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Abstract

Purpose

The current cadaveric report describes a quite rare unilateral bifurcation of the external iliac artery (EIA) into two femoral arteries (FAs) of almost equal diameter and parallel course, at the level of the inguinal ligament (IL).

Methods

The variant FAs were identified on a 75-year-old formalin-embalmed female cadaver, derived from a body donation program after a signed informed consent.

Results

The EIA bifurcated into a FA and a deep femoral artery (DFA). The DFA extremely high origin was identified at the IL level. Both lateral and medial circumflex femoral arteries originated from the DFA.

Conclusion

The in-depth knowledge of the FA variant origin is of paramount importance to vascular surgeons and interventional radiologists during vessel catheterization and attempts to interpret the angiographic findings. In particular, the DFA’s high origin from the EIA and the coexistence of two FAs in a parallel course may pose problems to clinicians during angiographic procedures leading to diagnostic errors. The DFA high origin may also complicate femoral arterial and venous puncture and femoral nerve blocks, due to the close neurovascular relationship. There is a possibility for the FA to be mistaken for a vein leading to accidental intra-arterial injection and consequently thrombosis. Thus, variable arterial pattern is important to be identified preoperatively using Doppler ultrasound imaging.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the body donors and their families due to their valuable contribution to anatomy education and research.

Funding

No funding was received for the current study.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Konstantinos Natsis and Maria Piagkou are equally contributed to the paper.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy and Surgical Anatomy, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Konstantinos Natsis, Trifon Totlis, Iasonas Dermitzakis & George Paraskevas

  2. Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 75 Mikras Asias Str., Goudi, 11527, Athens, Greece

    Maria Piagkou

Authors
  1. Konstantinos Natsis
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  2. Trifon Totlis
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  3. Iasonas Dermitzakis
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  4. George Paraskevas
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  5. Maria Piagkou
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Contributions

KN: conceptualization and dissection of the cadaver, TT, ID, and MP: manuscript writing and editing, ID, and MP: data collection and analysis, GP: manuscript editing, and KN: supervision. All authors approved the final draft of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maria Piagkou.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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The authors report no declarations of interest.

Ethical approval

The cadaveric study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

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Natsis, K., Totlis, T., Dermitzakis, I. et al. A rare bifurcation of the external iliac artery into femoral and deep femoral arteries. Surg Radiol Anat 44, 1257–1260 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-022-03010-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-022-03010-w

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