Corona Mortis: anatomical and surgical description on 60 cadaveric hemipelvises

Abstract

Objective: to report the prevalence of arterial corona mortis and to describe its surgical and clinical applicabilities.

Methods: We dissected 60 hemipelvises (50 men and 10 women) fixed in a 10% formalin solution for the purpose of gathering information on corona mortis. We measured the caliber and length of the obturator artery and its anastomotic branch with the aid of a digital caliper and submitted the data to statistical analyzes and comparisons with the GraphPad Prism 6 software.

Results: arterial corona mortis was present in 45% of the studied sample. The most common origin of the obturator artery was the internal iliac artery; however, there was one exceptional case in which it originated from the femoral artery. The caliber of the anastomotic branch was on average 2.7mm, whereas the caliber of the obturator artery was 2.6mm.

Conclusion: the vascular connections between the obturator, internal iliac, external iliac and inferior epigastric arterial systems are relatively common over the upper pubic branch. The diameter and a trajectory of the anastomotic artery may vary. Thus, iatrogenic lesions and pelvic and acetabular fractures can result in severe bleeding that puts the patient's life at risk.