Learning objectives
- to explain common variants of popliteal artery branches and to put emphasis on its clinical significance
- to raise awareness of reporting anatomical variants
Background
Anatomical variants are commonly seen in human body and can easily misinterpreted as pathologic by inexperienced radiologists. One of these anatomical variants that we discuss is popliteal arterial branching variations. In lower limb arteries, infrapopliteal arterial branching variations are commonly seen at varying rates in population unlike the iliac and femoral arteries (1). Knowledge of the normal anatomy and variants can help radiologists during reporting to avoid misinterpreting. The issue of knowing popliteal arterial branching has received considerably critical attention due to increasing number of...
Findings and procedure details
Embryology of popliteal artery. Lower limb arteries originate from two major embryological base artery. The axial artery (also known as sciatic or ischiatic artery) and external iliac artery, both of two originate from umbilical artery. In the 8th week of fetal development, the femoral artery, which is a branch of the external iliac artery, connects to the sciatic artery and becomes the main vessel supplying blood to the lower limbs. Sciatic artery lately regresses and this regression would be the reason of variations of lower...
Conclusion
Recognising and reporting the arterial variations of lower limb is very important in planning interventional radiological and surgical procedures involving anterior and posterior tibial and peroneal arteries.
Personal information and conflict of interest
R. E. Büyüktoka; Izmir/TR - nothing to disclose A. D. Büyüktoka; Izmir/TR - nothing to disclose Y. Pekcevik; Izmir/TR - nothing to disclose Z. H. Adibelli; Izmir/TR - nothing to disclose
References
1. Calisir, Cuneyt, et al. “Variations in the Popliteal Artery Branching in 342 Patients Studied with Peripheral CT Angiography Using 64-MDCT.” Japanese Journal of Radiology, vol. 33, no. 1, 2014, pp. 13–20., doi:10.1007/s11604-014-0373-2.
2.Kuznetsov, M R, et al. “Embryology, Anatomy and Rare Pathologies of the Popliteal Artery: Peculiarities of Surgical Treatment.” Angiologiia i Sosudistaia Khirurgiia = Angiology and Vascular Surgery, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2018, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29924785.
3.Khandelwal, Ankit, et al. “Variations in the Branching Pattern of Popliteal Artery and It’s Clinical Implications : A...
