Atherosclerotic lesions at the bifurcation of the common femoral artery.

In 100 corpses of patients over 45-years of age, the bifurcation of the right common femoral artery was resected. Five transverse sections were made of every specimen. The percentage of narrowing due to atherosclerosis was calculated accurately in every section. The investigation revealed that the proximal tract of the superficial femoral artery is not narrowed by atherosclerosis to a significantly higher degree than that portion of the deep femoral artery situated 1 cm distal to the origin of the lateral circumflex femoral artery. Also, in a large number of cases, it proved to be untrue that the origin of the deep femoral artery is narrowed more severely than the more distal tract of this artery.