MORPHOGENIC CONSIDERATIONS ON POPLITEAL ENTRAPMENT SYNDROME - A NEW CLASSIFICATION - CASE-REPORTS

Popliteal artery entrapment syndrome may result from anomalous positio ning of the popliteal artery itself or from abnormal attachments of th e medial head of the gastrocnemius muscle. Other popliteal fossa muscl es or anatomic structures may be implicated. The authors present 3 cas es of this syndrome, describing symptomatology, angiographic patterns, and surgical management, and discuss the anatomic findings from the b asis of a dysmorphogenic embryologic development, proposing a new clas sification: entrapment derived from arterial development anomalies (ty pe I) and entrapment derived from alterations during the medial gastro cnemius migration (type II), which can explain some findings not easil y classified previously.