A report on two cases of persistent median arteries

Abstract

Commonly the superficial palmar arch is formed by the anastomosis of the ulnar artery with the superficial palmar branch of the radial artery at mid palmar level. Variations of the superficial palmar arch as reported include:
a. Arch formed by the anastomosis of the Princeps Pollicis branch of the Radial artery with Ulnar artery.
b. In the rare instances, the anastomosis of the Median artery with the Ulnar artery
forming complete superticial palm's arch of the Medio-Ulnar type.
There have been previous reports about the bilateral occurrence of the Medio-Ulnar
type and in most cases were similar in both hands of the same body. Here in the present study, we report a case, where in one hand, arch was formed by the ulnar and radialis indicis is joined by median artery that is accompanying the median nerve forming complete superficial palmar arch of Radio-medio-ulnar type, while in the other hand median artery continued to persist without participating in the formation of the arch. This dissimilarity between the two hands of the same body is very rare and hence reported. However, complete dissection of the whole body did not reveal any
other vascular abnormality.