Profunda Femoris Variant Within the Sciatic Sheath

The profunda femoris artery (PFA) provides four perforating branches to supply blood to the deep thigh. During the dissection of a 64-year-old male cadaver, an enlarged perforating branch of the PFA was found piercing through the adductor magnus muscle while supplying the posterior compartment of the thigh. Perforating branches of the PFA commonly terminate in the posterior thigh, but this variant artery continues through the posterior leg and popliteal fossa after entering the sciatic sheath, terminating distal to the knee as muscular branches for both heads of the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles. The lower extremity has well-documented arterial variations; however, finding an artery within the sciatic sheath and providing muscular branches to the proximal leg is a notable variant. Knowledge of potential variations of branching of the PFA is clinically relevant in order to avoid possible surgical and radiological operative complications.