title: [The surgical anatomy of the rectal and anal blood vessels].
abstract: The authors examined 40 rectum specimens by angiography, preparation and staining methods to show the exact arterial vessel supply of the rectum and tried to find out whether a reason could be found for the relatively high rate of suture leaks after low resection of the rectum or not. The insertion of the levator muscle is a sort of vessel divide: caudal to the levator muscle the inferior rectal artery is the main supplying vessel, cranially the superior rectal artery. Here a vessel deficient-area always remains in the dorso-caudal sector of the rectal ampulla which cannot be compensated by another rectum-supplying vessel. The middle rectal artery supplies the rectum accessorily. The results are able to explain why the suture leaks are constantly observed in the dorso-caudal ampulla after profound anterior resection of the rectum. Furthermore the results account for the good healing tendency of coloanal anastomoses: the inferior rectal artery amply supplies the anal canal; there is not the same vessel-deficient area as found cranial to the levator muscle.
authors.affiliation: Abteilung Pathologie der Rheinisch-Westfälischen Technischen Hochschule Aachen.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vogel
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Klosterhalfen
mesh_terms: D001003:Anal Canal / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000601:surgery; D000792:Angiography; D001158:Arteries / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D006801:Humans; D012007:Rectum / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000601:surgery; D012307:Risk Factors; D013529:Surgical Wound Dehiscence / Q000517:prevention & control
vernacular_title: Die chirurgische Anatomie der Rectum- und Analgefässe.