Vascular Anatomy
Times are changing. That is a fact we all know too well. In a lot of hospitals cardiac catheterization labs and interventional radiology are being joined in one department with the name cardiovascular interventional services. It helps hospitals consolidate services that utilize very expensive equipment.
I am not getting into all the politics surrounding this issue. I remember working with the nursing staff in the department I was affiliated with and the nurse's one wish was that they were more knowledgeable about the lower extremity artery anatomy. They all knew the cardiac vascular anatomy by working with it over time, but here they were doing complicated procedures on the peripheral system and they were held back by lack of knowledge.
I thought I would devote some time to the vascular anatomy, who knows maybe it will help a lot of people. I will start the lesson at the abdominal aortic bifurcation.
The abdominal aorta divides in the lower lumbar area, somewhere about the level of the umbilicus, each branch going to both lower extremities. The first named part is the iliac arteries. After a short course it divides into the internal iliac, which feeds the organs in the pelvis, and the other branch is the external iliac artery.
Passing through the inguinal ligament the external iliac becomes the common femoral artery. The common femoral artery bifurcates into the superficial femoral artery and the deep femoral artery, also known as the profunda. The profunda supplies the thigh. The superficial femoral artery continues down the medial side of the femur, midway down the femur the SFA goes through the adductor canal and winds behind the knee where it becomes the popliteal artery.
Below the knee the popliteal artery trifurcates into the anterior tibial artery on the lateral side of the lower leg, the posterior tibial artery on the medial side and the peroneal artery between them. The anterior tibial and the posterior tibial artery form the pedal arch.
I hope the description is of some help, I had an illustration but not being totally computer savy I could not get it to show up.