Satheesha Nayak B.; Snigdha Mishra; Bincy M. George; Saju Binu Cherian & Surekha D. Shetty

Femoral artery is the major artery of the lower limb. It shows some variations in its branching pattern. One of the rare but clinically important variations is the origin of deep circumflex iliac and inferior epigastric arteries from it instead of from external iliac artery. We report here the origin of inferior epigastric and deep circumflex iliac arteries from the femoral artery bilaterally. Both the arteries passed up deep to the inguinal ligament and had a normal course and distribution after crossing the inguinal ligament. Knowledge of these variations is of importance in plastic surgery, anterior approach to the hip joint, draining psoas abscess or reducing a femoral hernia.

KEY WORDS: Femoral artery; deep circumflex iliac artery; Inferior epigastric artery; Femoral triangle; Anatomical variation.

NAYAK, B. S.; MISHRA, S.; GEORGE, B. M.; CHERIAN, S. B. & SHETTY, S. D. Unusual branches of femoral artery in the femoral triangle – A case report. Int. J. Morphol., 31(3):819-821, 2013.