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Variant course of the submental vein
, 2, 1
Affiliations- Institute of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
- Department of Maxillofacial and Oral Surgery, General Hospital Celje, Slovenia
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Abstract
Superficial head and neck vessels are increasingly used in surgical procedures and are especially important in facial transplantation surgeries. We report a variant course of the submental vein observed during a dissection of a 79-year-old-male embalmed cadaver: a left submental vein running caudally across the intermediate tendon of the digastric muscle, separating from the course of the submental artery and emptying directly into the common facial vein in the carotid triangle. Such course may complicate submental island flap harvesting, as well as the graft manipulations and reattachment, since the vein could be damaged during the conventional procedure. This report therefore extends current knowledge of the variations of the vascular anatomy of the head and neck.
Abstract
Superficial head and neck vessels are increasingly used in surgical procedures and are especially important in facial transplantation surgeries. We report a variant course of the submental vein observed during a dissection of a 79-year-old-male embalmed cadaver: a left submental vein running caudally across the intermediate tendon of the digastric muscle, separating from the course of the submental artery and emptying directly into the common facial vein in the carotid triangle. Such course may complicate submental island flap harvesting, as well as the graft manipulations and reattachment, since the vein could be damaged during the conventional procedure. This report therefore extends current knowledge of the variations of the vascular anatomy of the head and neck.
Keywords
anatomical variation, gracilis muscle flap, gross anatomy, submental artery, submental island flap
About this articleTitle
Variant course of the submental vein
Journal
Issue
Article type
Case report
Pages
176-178
Published online
2019-05-10
Page views
2273
Article views/downloads
1181
DOI
Pubmed
Bibliographic record
Folia Morphol 2020;79(1):176-178.
Keywords
anatomical variation
gracilis muscle flap
gross anatomy
submental artery
submental island flap
Authors
N. Umek
L. Skamagkoulis
E. Cvetko
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