A STUDY OF THE ARTERIAL SUPPLY IN THE HUMAN RECTUS FEMORIS MUSCLE

The rectus femoris muscles have been used in reconstructive surgery, a lthough their vascular anatomy has not been examined in detail. Thus, using cadavers, we have analyzed the extramuscular vascular pattern of 40 rectus femoris muscles and the intramuscular vascular pattern in 2 7 of these 40 muscles by means of an injected radiopaque substance and subsequent arteriography. The arterial patterns seen, depending on th eir relationship to the intramuscular tendon, then were classified as follows: type 1a (13 muscles), type 1b (3 muscles), type 2 (7 muscles) , and type 3 (4 muscles). In the type 1a pattern, most of a muscle bel ly was supplied by one artery, but this was not seen in the other patt ern types. We also observed an average of 2.6 musculocutaneous perfora tors. Therefore, in planning a free muscle transfer, the anatomic char acteristics of the muscle should be kept in mind.