Bilateral absence of ovarian artery in a Tanzanian female cadaver: a rare variation

During dissection of a 38-year-old female human cadaver at International Medical and Technological University (IMTU), Department of Anatomy and Histology the anatomical variation of bilateral absence of ovarian arteries was found. There wasn’t any branch from the abdominal aorta which supplied the ovaries; instead the ovaries were supplied only by the ovarian branch of the uterine artery. Arterial variation of the ovarian artery based on origin and course has been reported previously, but there is no literature which describes bilateral absence of the ovarian artery. Knowledge of this kind of variation will help the surgeon during surgical procedures to be carefully in preserving the ovarian branch of uterine artery that is the sole arterial supplier of the ovaries in the absence of the ovarian arteries.