An angiographic study in terminal branching pattern of popliteal artery and its clinical connotation

Elamathi Bose^1*, Vijaya Ramanathan², Sudha Seshayyan³

¹Assistant Professor, ³Director and Professor, Institute of Anatomy, Madras Medical College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, INDIA.

²Professor, Department of Anatomy, Meenakshi Medical College and Research Institute, Enathur, Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, INDIA.

Email: ila007dr@yahoo.co.in

Abstract               Background: Popliteal artery is the continuation of femoral artery traversing popliteal fossa from opening in Adductor magnus to distal border of Popliteus where it divides into Anterior and Posterior Tibial arteries. Aim: To study the variations in Popliteal artery and its branching pattern. Materials & Methods: It was a retrospective study to evaluate the variants in terminal branching pattern of popliteal artery using 128 slice CT. The study was conducted between July 2015 to September 2017 on a total of 50 lower limb angiographic films obtained from the Department of Radiology of various institutions. Variations in branching patterns were noted. Results: Normal level of popliteal arterial branching was observed in 95% of cases. Trifurcation pattern was seen in 2.5% of cases. High division of popliteal artery, with anterior tibial artery being the first branch, arising above knee was observed in 2.5% of cases. Conclusion: Knowledge of variations in the branching patterns of Popliteal artery is important for the following reasons: Surgical approaches & choice of suitable arterial graft site, awareness to vascular surgeons during arterial reconstruction in Femoro-popliteal by-pass graft procedure, management of Peripheral vascular diseases, for orthopaedic surgeons ,to reduce incidence of serious unexpected arterial injury during surgical procedure in & around knee joint & in Popliteal artery entrapment syndrome

Key Words: popliteal artery.