A thorough knowledge about the branching variations of the femoral and deep femoral arteries is important in vascular reconstructive surgery of the proximal leg. The present study was done to describe the patterns of origin of the main branches
of
the femoral and deep femoral arteries in Koreans. The cadavers of 77 Koreans(male, 51 ; female, 26), who were 18-97 years old of time of death, were used in the present investigations and the femoral arteries of 152 sides(right side, 77 ; left
side, 75)
were observed. The femoral arteries of two left sides were excluded from this study because their branches were not clearly examined during dissection. The results were as follows : 1. Lateral circumflex femoral artery arose from the deep
femoral
artery in 78.9% and from the femoral artery in 21.1%. Significant differences between the right and left sides were not observed. 2. Medial circumflex femoral artery arose from the deep femoral artery in 77.0% and from the femoral artery in
22.4%.
This artery arose more frequently from the femoral artery on the left side, and from the deep femoral artery on the right side in about a 9-10% differential respectively. In one case, the medial circumflex femoral artery arose from the lateral
circumflex femoral artery on the left side. 3. The descending branch, which is normally a branch of the lateral circumflex femoral artery, arose from either the femoral or the deep femoral arteries in about 7% of the cases respectively. 4. The
patterns of origin of the deep and circumflex femoral group of arteries were classified into 18 types. Each type is represented in three letters by using the initial of the deep femoral artery (D) or femoral artery (F) or lateral circumflex
femoral
artery (L) in the order of origin of the lateral circumflex femoral artery, medial circumflex femoral artery and descending branch. Types DDL (49.3%), FDL(18.4%) and DFL(15.1%) constituted the three major types on both sides. In addition, seven
types
(DFD, FFL, DDD, DDF, DFF, DLL and FDF) were found on the left side and three types (DDF, DDD and DFD) on the right side.
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