Variations in origin and course of the Dorsalis pedis artery - A case study

The application of anatomical knowledge of the arterial system is important to clinical practitioners requiring access to available sites for investigations, procedures or clinical examination. The increasing reliance upon high-tech diagnostics and at the other spectral end devolved clinical examination skills to professions supplementary to medicine may fail to take into account any anatomical basis of changes in peripheral pulses particularly when they are notoriously difficult to identify reliably such as the dorsalis pedis. Dissection for anatomical study of a female cadaver identified aberrant right dorsalis pedis originating from the peroneal artery as a continuance of the perforating branch as opposed to the usual anterior tibial artery that in this case was tapering off. The other structures of the anterior, posterior and lateral compartments were observed to follow the same course as described in standard anatomy textbooks.