External diameters of the crural arteries in patients with chronic critical limb ischaemia.

Knowledge of the diameters of the crural arteries forms the basis for reconstructive vascular surgery and percutaneous angioplasty. The external diameters of the crural arteries were examined in 152 specimens of lower limbs by anatomical, digital and statistical methods. The diameters of all the crural arteries were significantly greater (p < or = 0.01) in the male subjects. The differences between the right and left arterial diameters were statistically significant (p < or = 0.01) only in relation to the posterior tibial artery. In subtypes IC and IIB the anterior tibial artery was the strongest, the peroneal artery was of intermediate diameter and the posterior tibial artery was the weakest. In subtype IB the anterior tibial artery presented as the predominant vessel but in subtypes IIA-1 and IIA-2 it was the posterior tibial artery that did so. In subtype IA 24 examples of the coexistence of angiometric variants of the crural arteries were distinguished. It was demonstrated that the strongest vessel was the anterior tibial artery (32.24%), rarely the posterior tibial artery (14.47%) or the peroneal artery (9.87%). In most cases (21.71%) three of the crural arteries had intermediate diameters. In 13.16% of cases there were two arteries of intermediate diameter, the posterior tibial and the peroneal, which accompanied a strong anterior tibial artery and, the least common variant (6.58%), two intermediate tibial arteries with a weak peroneal artery. A hyperplastic peroneal artery (6.59%) compensated for either the anterior tibial artery (1.98%) or the posterior tibial artery (4.61%).