ARTERIOGRAPHIC STUDY OF THE ARTERIAL SUPPLY OF THE FOOT IN 100 CADAVER FEET

The arterial supply of 100 human cadaver feet (87 cadavers) was invest igated by stereoscopic arteriography and was compared phylogenetically to that of the macaque foot. The deep plantar arch was always well de veloped and complete, whereas the superficial plantar arch was usually slender and incomplete. The first proximal perforating artery arising from the dorsalis pedis artery formed the main component of the deep plantar arch in 82% of the feet. The second proximal perforating arter y arising from the dorsal rete contributed to the deep plantar arch in 43% of the feet, and formed most of the arch in one foot. The dorsal rete was classified into four groups of variants based on the arterial source of the second dorsal metatarsal artery. These were the arcuate artery (25%), distal lateral tarsal artery (12%), proximal lateral ta rsal artery (6%), and nondorsal rete (57%) variants. In the first inte rmetatarsal space, the dorsal and plantar metatarsal arteries shared a common trunk in 54% of the feet, but this did not occur in the other intermetatarsal spaces. The second dorsal metatarsal artery arose from the dorsal rete in 43% of the feet, and this artery was quite large, sometimes being the largest of all the dorsal and plantar metatarsal a rteries. Variations of the arterial supply found in humans sometimes r esembled the typical pattern found in the macaque.