[A case of the persistent sciatic artery]

Abstract

During the dissecting practice of students at Gifu University School of Medicine in 1989, a rare developmental anomaly showing the sciatic artery was found in the left lower limb of a cadaver of 88-year-old Japanese female. The left sciatic artery (5 mm in diameter) arose from the internal iliac artery and appeared at the buttock between the piriformis and superior gemellus muscles through foramen infrapiriforme. The femoral artery (6 mm in diameter) of the left lower limb was normal in distribution and belonged to the type III by Adachi's classification (1928). The terminal vessel of the femoral artery was joined to the sciatic artery at the popliteal fossa.