From the common iliac artery we’ve seen the internal iliac and the external iliac
arteries, and I said that the external iliac artery is going to become the femoral artery.
And that happens when it passes underneath the structure known as the inguinal ligament.
We cannot see the inguinal ligament on this model.
But the inguinal ligament connects from our anterior superior iliac spine to our pubic
tubercle, which should be right about here.
So if I drew a line across right about there, that would represent our inguinal ligament.
So here would be the external iliac artery.
On this side of the ligament then we would be the femoral artery.
The femoral artery supplies the majority of the blood to the lower extremity.
Femoral artery travels in front of the pelvis and then travels initially along the medial
aspect of the femur, and then will go through an opening in the adductor magnus muscle known
as the adductor hiatus, to pass posterior to the knee.
When it passes posterior to the knee, it has gone through the adductor hiatus, it changes
its name.
We started with common iliac.
Under inguinal ligament we became femoral.
When we go through the adductor hiatus we change the name to popliteal.
The popliteal stops being popliteal when it branches into two branches.
The anterior tibial artery and the posterior tibial artery.
Now the anterior tibial artery is going to pass lateral to the tibia and then run down
the anterior aspect of the leg as anterior tibial artery.
And then out onto the top of the foot as the dorsalis pedis artery.
The posterior tibial artery will send a branch out called the peroneal artery, or the fibular
artery.
Now on this plaque it disappears here because the fibula, you have to remember is lateral,
and we are looking at the medial side of this lower extremity.
So the fibula is actually back away from us in this board.
So this is the model maker's version of having this artery slowly disappear because it is
getting further away from you.
So this is the fibular or peroneal artery.
This is the posterior tibial artery.
Remember here we had anterior tibial.
Now posterior tibial.
Posterior tibial will go behind the medial malleolus of the ankle to become the medial
and lateral plantar arteries.
But because we are looking at a medial side of the foot we know that this must be the
medial plantar artery.
Let's jump back up to where we became the femoral artery.
Femoral artery came down, went through the adductor hiatus, and became popliteal artery.
Popliteal artery stopped when it became the anterior and posterior tibial arteries.
But we've missed a whole lot along the way.
Near the hip there's a whole lot going on with his femoral artery.
At the level of the Pectineus muscle we see a lot of branching going on.
One branch that leaves the femoral artery will dive deep into the muscles, and that
is this branch right here.
It is called the deep femoral artery, also known as the profunda femoris.
And it terminates as what are called perforating branches.
And on this model we can see one, two, perhaps three perforating branches of that profunda
femoris, or deep femoral artery.
Also at that same level we are going to send out two branches from the femoral artery.
The lateral circumflex femoral artery and the medial circumflex femoral artery.
The lateral circumflex femoral artery will branch into three branches.
And it passes anterior to the femur.
So we know, from following these branches here, this is coming anterior to your femur.
This is our lateral circumflex femoral artery.
On this model they only depict two branches.
The descending branch and the ascending branch.
They do not have the third branch.
But we know that this must be the lateral circumflex femoral artery because it is coming
anterior to the femur.
This other branch here is looping and then we can see it passing posterior to the femur.
That is this artist representation of the medial circumflex femoral artery.
So to recap, femoral artery, deep femoral or profunda femoris, lateral circumflex femoral
artery, coming anterior to the femur.
Medial circumflex femoral going posterior to the femur.
And then we follow the rest down through this extremity.
Let's hop over to the other extremity here for just a second.
Here we see the femoral artery and in this model they have cut that femoral artery so
we can see those, better see the lateral and medial circumflex femoral arteries.
But here we can see the femoral artery passing on down, and it's actually going to disappear
behind the knee.
Remember we go through the adductor hiatus to go posterior to the knee.
So back in here, where we can't see it, is popliteal artery.
Now again we don't get to see the other branches from this view.
Except the anterior tibial artery, which we saw on this side, now comes in between the
tibia and the fibula, travels down the anterior aspect of the leg and out onto the surface
of the foot as the dorsalis pedis artery.
Now there are other branches along the way but we will not hold you responsible for them
on this model.
The veins are generally named for the same name as the arteries.
So in this lower extremity here we saw the femoral artery, it's followed with the femoral
vein.
When it was popliteal artery it was popliteal vein.
So lateral and medial the circumflex femoral’s, both arteries and veins.
But the one big difference we see in the lower extremity, starting on the medial side of
the foot and traveling all the way up the medial side of the leg, then the medial side
of the thigh to join the femoral vein just before it becomes the external iliac vein,
is the great saphenous vein.
The great saphenous vein.
And this vein has many different clinical significances, I'll leave that up to your
individual lecture professors.
Great saphenous vein, medial side of leg, medial side of thigh going into the femoral
vein.
Now that femoral vein, as it passes under the inguinal ligament, will become the external
iliac vein.
There are veins from the pelvis that were internal iliac veins.
Those two will unite to form our common iliac veins.
The common iliac veins unite to form the inferior vena cava.
So those are the veins that you should be able to see on this vessel plaque.