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Case Reports
. 2023 Jul 20:12:178.
doi: 10.4103/abr.abr_258_22. eCollection 2023.

A Case Report: An Unusual Variation in the Facial Artery

Saeed Zamani  1 , Azadeh Safaee  1 , Sayed Mehrdad Azimi  1 , Mansour Homayoun  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

A Case Report: An Unusual Variation in the Facial Artery

Saeed Zamani et al. Adv Biomed Res. .

Abstract

The facial artery is the main artery supplying the face occasionally. It gives three branches on the face, the inferior labial, the superior labial, and the lateral nasal, and terminates as the angular artery. Due to congenital vascular variations in the facial artery, it has been considered in the dissection of the head and neck region. During the dissection of a 65-year-old woman to expose this region, we discovered that the left facial artery is terminated by the superior labial artery after giving off the submental and inferior labial branches. At the level of the left oral commissure, the facial artery was attached to the buccinator muscle as connective tissue, with a noticeable decrease in diameter. The purpose of this study is to report a new variation of the facial artery that is particularly important for cadaver dissection, and head and neck surgeries, as well as for facial artery angiography.

Keywords: Arteries; anatomic variation; cadaver; dissection; facial.

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Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) Surface anatomy of the facial artery (GO = Gonion CH = Cheilion FA = Facial Artery). (b) Tributaries and direction of the facial artery
Figure 2
Figure 2
(A) Left facial artery (B) Inferior labial artery (C) Superior labial artery (D) Terminal part of facial artery (E) Facial vein
Figure 3
Figure 3
(A) Right facial artery (B) Facial vein (C) Superior labial artery (D) Lateral nasal artery
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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