title: Persistent median artery in the hand: a report with a brief review of the literature.
abstract: We encountered a persistent median artery in the forearms and hands bilaterally in a 78-year-old Japanese male cadaver during dissection practice at Wakayama Medical University. The brachial arteries divided into the ulnar and radial arteries. The ulnar artery gave off the median and posterior interosseous arteries at the same point, although the anterior interosseous artery was not found. The median artery ran along the median nerve and bifurcated in the hand. In the superficial layer of the palm, one branch of the median artery ran to the ulnar side of the thumb, whereas the other passed to the second interdigital space. The ulnar artery reached the third and fourth interdigital spaces and the ulnar side of the little finger, and showed no anastomosis with the median artery in the superficial layer of the palm. The radial artery did not give off the superficial palmar branch. Therefore, the formation of the superficial palmar arch was incomplete. In the deep layer of the palm, the radial artery formed the deep palmar arch with the deep palmar branch of the ulnar artery and gave off the princeps pollicis artery. In the dorsum of hand, the radial artery passed over the first dorsal interosseous muscle to the index finger and communicated with the palmar pollical artery from the median artery in the first interosseous space. The present study reports an unusual variation of the persistent median artery in the hand and briefly reviews the literature about the median artery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Wakayama Medical University School of Medicine, Wakayama, Japan. tsuruo@wakayama-med.ac.jp
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tsuruo
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ueyama
authors.forename: Takao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Sakiko
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nanjo
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gyoubu
authors.forename: Keita
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Satoh
authors.forename: Yukiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Iida
authors.forename: Saori
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nakai
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005542:Forearm / Q000002:abnormalities / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006225:Hand / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008475:Median Nerve / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D017534:Radial Artery / Q000002:abnormalities / Q000502:physiology; D013933:Thumb / Q000098:blood supply; D017535:Ulnar Artery / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000502:physiology