Medial femoral circumflex artery

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Artery: Medial femoral circumflex artery

The profunda femoris artery, femoral artery and their major branches - right thigh, anterior view. (Medial femoral circumflex artery not labeled, but femoral profunda labeled at upper right.)
Latin	arteria circumflexa femoris medialis
Gray's	subject #157 630
Supplies	thigh
Source	deep femoral artery, femoral artery
Dorlands/Elsevier	a_61/12153896

The medial femoral circumflex artery (internal circumflex artery, medial circumflex femoral artery) is an artery in the upper thigh that helps supply blood to the neck of the femur.

1 Structure
- 1.1 Branches
2 See also
3 External links

[edit] Structure

The medial femoral circumflex artery arises from the medial and posterior aspect of the profunda femoris artery, and winds around the medial side of the femur, passing first between the pectineus and iliopsoas muscles, and then between the obturator externus and the adductor brevis muscles.

The medial femoral circumflex artery may occasionally arise directly from the femoral artery.

[edit] Branches

At the upper border of the adductor brevis it gives off two branches:

The ascending branch is distributed to the adductor muscles of the thigh, the gracilis muscle, and obturator externus muscle, and anastomoses with the obturator artery.

The descending branch descends beneath the adductor brevis, to supply it and the adductor magnus; the continuation of the vessel passes backward and divides into superficial, deep, and acetabular branches.
- The superficial branch appears between the quadratus femoris and upper border of the adductor magnus, and anastomoses with the inferior gluteal artery, lateral femoral circumflex artery, and first of the perforating arteries of the profunda femoris (crucial anastomosis).
- The deep branch runs obliquely upward upon the tendon of the obturator externus and in front of the quadratus femoris toward the trochanteric fossa, where it anastomoses with twigs from the superior gluteal artery and inferior gluteal artery.
- The acetabular branch arises opposite the acetabular notch and enters the hip-joint beneath the transverse ligament in company with an articular branch from the obturator artery; it supplies the fat in the bottom of the acetabulum, and is continued along the ligament to the head of the femur.

[edit] See also

Lateral femoral circumflex artery

[edit] External links

Duke Orthopedics medial_femoral_circumflex_artery
SUNY Figs 12:04-06 - "Arteries of the lower extremity shown in association with major landmarks."

This article was originally based on an entry from a public domain edition of Gray's Anatomy. As such, some of the information contained herein may be outdated. Please edit the article if this is the case, and feel free to remove this notice when it is no longer relevant.