A further study of the high incidence of the median artery of the forearm in Southern Africa

Abstract

Sixty-two forearms from 36 cadavers of South Africans of European extraction were dissected. The frequency of the median artery per forearm was 27.4%. There was neither bilateral difference nor sexual dimorphism in the incidence of the artery. These findings compare well with a previous study of black South Africans (Henneberg & George, 1992) where frequency per forearm was 27.1%. Our findings are much higher than those of earlier studies. This discrepancy may be explained either by differences in the thoroughness of the observations or regional variation, or by the occurrence of a secular trend in the development of vasculature.