Clinical implications of studying the radial artery, its branches, and variations

Abstract

Background: The cubital fossa lies near the radial artery, a brachial artery terminal branch. Anatomists and physicians’ study radial artery branching patterns, origin, and trajectory. Coronary angiography and bypass operations increasingly employ the radial artery. Vascular and plastic surgeons use the superficial and deep palmar arches, Radial artery origin, course, and branches as markers.Methods: The standard dissection technique was used for this. 40 human upper limbs were used for this analysis. The adult upper limb specimens used in this study were taken from embalmed cadavers donated to the Department of Anatomy, Mallareddy Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, Telangana, India, between the October 2020 to July 2021, for use in the first year MBBS and BDS dissection courses.Results: This study was conducted to document and provide insight into radial artery anatomy both in its normal and variant forms. Subjects were selected from the Medical College and the Institute of Anatomy for the study. There was a fullness to the superficial palmar arch in 80% of people and a lack of perfection in the other 20%. Forty percent of the whole arch was made up of type I arches, 8% of the arches were of type II, and 2% of the arches were of type V. The proportion of type I incomplete arches was 4%, whereas the proportion of type II arches was 16%.Conclusion: Only 6% of people in this research had a radial artery that originated high in the arm from the brachial artery. Overall, radial arteries averaged 21.25 centimetres in length. In 96% and 4% of cases, respectively, the recurrent radial artery originated from the radial artery and the brachial artery. Only around 4% of samples had a recurrent radial artery that was considered an accessory.