Surg Radiol Anat (1997) 19:403-406 Anatomic variations Sungical Radiolog,c Anatomy Journal of Clinical Anatomy © Springer-Verlag 1997 A further morphological study of the persistent median artery in neonatal cadavers* C. Kopuz 1, S. Bails 2 and B. Gulman 3 1 Department of Anatomy, 2 Department of Pathology, 3 Department of Orthopaedics-Traumatology, Ondokuzmayis University, Medical Faculty, Samsun, Turkey Summary: Persistent median artery was studied in 60 upper lilnbs of 30 neonatal cadavers. It was found in 12 (20%) speci- mens while partial atrophy in the distal part of the median artery was detected in 9 (15%) specimens. These findings cor- related well with those of other series including the authors' previous study which covered both adults and neonates. There was no significant difference sta- tistically between the authors' current and previous studies (p>0,05). Therefore both studies were combined. The inci- dence of persistent median artery in this enlarged series (100 specimens) was 17%. This rate of persistent median arte- ry was higher than those of most other published series. We believe this may be due to evolutionary and racial trends; the neonatal origin of our specimens would be another differing factor. Partial atro- phy of the median artery, and the diffe- rent incidences in neonates and adults raised the possibility that the median artery regresses at a later age, possibly during perinatal and early infancy period. Correspondence to: C. Kopuz, Ulugazi mah. Kaplanoglu Sok., Kiziltan Ap. No:2 5A/11, 55030 Samsun, Turkey * Presented at the Second International sympo- sium of Clinical Anatomy, September 12-14, 1996, Varna, Bulgaria Une 6tude morphologique eompldmentaire stir l'art~re m6diane persistante sur des enfants morts-n6s R~sum~ : La persistance de ra. mtdiane a 6t6 recherchde sur 60 membres supt- fieurs provenant de 30 cadavres de nou- veau-ntis. Elle a ~t6 trouvte sur 12 pi~ces (20 % des cas) tandis qu'une atrophic localiste de la partie distale de ra. media- ne 6talt dttectte sur 9 pi~ces (15 %). Ces constatations ont une bonne con'61ation avec celles d'autres stries, y compris l'ttude antdrieure des auteurs portant ~ la fois sur des adultes et des nouveau-nts. I1 n'y avait pas de difftrence statistique- ment significative entre l'ttude rapportde ici et la prdctdente (p>0,05). C'est pour- quoi les deux 6tudes ont 6t6 rassembltes. La frdquence de la persistance d'nne a. mtdiane dans cette dtude 61argie (100 cas) a 6t6 de 17 %. Ce taux d'a. mtdiane persistante est plus dlev6 que celui de la plupart des autres sdries publides. Nous pensons qu'il peut ~tre li6 ~ des facteurs 6volutifs et ethniques ; l'origine ntonatale de nos observations a pu ~tre un autre facteur diffdrentiel. L'atrophie partielle de l'a. mddiane et la difftrence de frd- quence chez le nouveau-n~ par rapport radulte proviennent de la possibilit6 qu'a l'a. mtdiane de rtgresser hun stade plus tardif, peut-~tre durant la ptriode ptrina- tale ou dans la premibre enfance. Key words: Persistent median artery- Neonatal cadaver The median a. is a relatively common anatomical variant [2, 5, 11, 14, 25, 30] and its presence should be taken into consideration in clinical practice, espe- cially in neonatal surgery, for several rea- sons: It may cause symptoms of the car- pal tunnel syndrome [2-3, 8-10, 14, 15, 17, 21, 31]; it may supply the hand in radial or ulnar artery injuries, or it may be used as graft artery elsewhere in the body [14, 21]. In a recent study, in 20 neonatal cada- vers we have found a persistent median a. (PMA) with an incidence of 12.5% [19]. Compared with previously publi- shed studies, this incidence is remarkably high and, considering most other studies were performed on adult cadavers, this difference lead to several questions inclu- ding whether these findings reflect racial and/or evolutionary differences of PMA incidence between different populations, or whether the results reflect develop- mental differences between adults and neonates. In this study we have extended our previous study to cover more dissections including histologic investigations. Material and methods Sixty upper limbs out of 30 neonatal cadavers (18 males, 12 females) were obtained from the collection of the Anatomy Department of Ondokuz- mayis University. All cadavers were