Anatomical insight into the normal and abnormal branching pattern of the popliteal artery

Excerpt

We read with much interest the article titled ‘Branching patterns of the popliteal artery and its clinical importance’ by Ozgur et al. [2]. The article describes the normal and abnormal branching pattern of the popliteal artery in 40 lower cadaveric limbs. Perhaps, the sample size is too small to comment on the incidence of anomalous branching pattern. It is pertinent to mention that a recent research study conducted on 1,242 digital subtraction angiographic cases observed the higher origin of the anterior tibial artery in 1.2% cases and trifurcation in 1.5% cases as compared to the present findings in 5 and 1% cases, respectively [1]. Thus, it cannot be refuted that the incidence of any anomalous branching pattern of popliteal artery may be directly proportional to the sample size. …