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J Brachial Plex Peripher Nerve Inj 2014; 09(01): e10-e15
DOI: 10.1186/1749-7221-9-2
Case Report
Troupis et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

Report of an unusual combination of arterial, venous and neural variations in a cadaveric upper limb[*]

Theodore G Troupis
1   Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
,
Adamantios Michalinos
1   Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
,
Vasiliki Manou
1   Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
,
Dimitrios Vlastos
1   Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
,
Elizabeth O Johnson
1   Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
,
Theano Demesticha
1   Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
,
Panayiotis Skandalakis
1   Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
› Author Affiliations
Subject Editor:
Further Information

Publication History

31 October 2013

31 January 2014

Publication Date:
26 September 2014 (online)

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Abstract

In this study an unusual combination of arterial, venous and neural variations discovered during dissection of cervical, axillary and brachial area of a cadaver is described. Variations are thoroughly described and literature is briefly reviewed. Lateral cord of brachial plexus was not formed; Eight Cervical root divided into anterior and posterior division before uniting with First Thoracic root and Upper Trunk was unusually short. Axillary artery gave origin to a superficial brachial artery and then continued as deep brachial artery. Multiple variations in typical axillary artery branches were present including existence of inferior pectoral artery. Cephalic vein was absent. A variety of interventions, from relative simple as central venous catheter placement to most complicated as brachial plexus injury repair demand thorough knowledge of area’s regional anatomy. Familiarity with anatomic variations allows more precise and careful interventions. Research on these variations is valuable for anatomists and embryologists but also for clinicians because it may provide useful information for non - typical cases but also helps in raising a high level of suspicion.

Keywords

Brachial plexus - Brachial artery - Cephalic vein

*This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.


 

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