Saphenous artery

The saphenous artery ("hidden artery", from Arabic safin "hidden") is an artery of the lower extremity . In humans, this vessel is created in the embryo, but atrophies during prenatal development so that it is only present in exceptional cases after birth. All other mammals have a saphenous artery even as adults.

The saphenous artery arises in the thigh gap on the inside of the thigh from the femoral artery and can be addressed as a superficial branch of this. Together with the saphenous nerve and the great saphenous vein, it pulls directly under the skin (subcutaneously) over the inside of the knee joint to the lower leg . On the lower leg, it divides into a front branch ( ramus cranialis ) and a rear branch ( ramus caudalis ) - except in cloven-hoofed animals .

In predators, the small ramus cranialis feeds the superficial arteries of the metatarsus ( Arteriae digitales dorsales communes ).

The ramus caudalis - in cloven-hoofed animals, the arteria saphena itself - accompanies the nervus tibialis and pulls over the sustentaculum tali (→ talus ) to the metatarsus. There it divides into the lateral and medial plantar arteries , which in humans arise from the posterior tibial artery .

literature

• Uwe Gille: Cardiovascular and immune system, Angiologia. In: Franz-Viktor Salomon, Hans Geyer, Uwe Gille (Ed.): Anatomy for veterinary medicine. 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Enke, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-8304-1075-1 , pp. 404-463.