title: Prevalence of the persistant median artery.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Neurovascular variations in the upper limb are common and they are well documented. An accurate knowledge of the normal and the variant anatomy of the median nerve and the median artery are important for clinical procedures and for vascular surgeries. The persistant median artery is one such anomaly which was seen in 6.6% (4) of the 60 upper limbs which were dissected in the present study, it being bilateral in one cadaver.
  
  
  METHODS
  The present study was conducted on 60 upper limbs of 30 cadavers at the Government Medical College, Amritsar, India. The whole course of the median nerve and the persistant median artery was exposed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In all the 4 variant limbs, the persistent median artery originated from the anterior interrosseous artery and terminated in the incomplete mediano- ulnar type of the superficial palmar arch. In three upper limbs, the persistant median artery simply accompanied the median nerve upto the palm. But in the left upper limb of the cadaver with the bilateral variation, the artery penetrated and divided the nerve into two halves which joined to form a neural loop around the artery. Thereafter, the nerve and the artery followed the same course upto the palm. Such a penetration of the median nerve by the persistent median artery is extremely rare. Further, its ontogeny and clinical implications have been discussed in detail.
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Anatomy, GMC Amritsar (Baba Farid University of Health Sciences and Research).
authors.forename: Rajan Kumar
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Singla
authors.forename: Neelamjit
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kaur
authors.forename: Gurvinder Singh
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Dhiraj
keywords: Median nerve penetration; Neurovascular variations; Persistant median artery