ANATOMICAL VARIATION OF PROFUNDA FEMORIS ARTERY IN TWO CADAVERS

Dr. Surekha D. Jadhav* and Dr. Sudhir E Pawar

ABSTRACT

Profunda femoris artery is the branch of femoral artery which arises from postero-lateral aspect of femoral artery about 3.5-4 cm distal to inguinal ligament. This artery is useful in various procedures such as angiography, arteriography and vascular reconstructive procedures. The aim of this paper is to provide the awareness of anatomical variation in origin of Profunda femoris artery. We observed a variation of profunda femoris artery in two cases during routine dissection of first year MBBS students in our college. Variation was noticed as the bifurcation of left femoral artery (in both cases) i.e. Profunda femoris artery was arising from lateral side of femoral artery just behind the inguinal ligament. When the origin of Profunda femoris artery lies high, it can cause problems during femoral arterial or venous puncture, embalming, various interventional procedures and femoral nerve block. The precise knowledge of normal and variant anatomy of profunda femoris artery is important for surgeons, clinicians, radiologist and anatomist.

Keywords: Profunda femoris artery, Femoral artery, Inguinal ligament.