Surg Radiol Anat (2007) 29:569–573 DOI 10.1007/s00276-007-0230-4 123 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Anatomy and potential clinical signiWcance of the vastoadductor membrane R. Shane Tubbs · Marios Loukas · Mohammadali M. Shoja · Nihal Apaydin · W. Jerry Oakes · E. George Salter Received: 25 March 2007 / Accepted: 13 June 2007 / Published online: 7 July 2007  Springer-Verlag 2007 Abstract Few reports are found in the extant medical liter- ature regarding the vastoadductor membrane. This mem- brane eVectively creates a subcompartment within the subsartorial canal. The lower limbs of 16 embalmed adult cadavers were dissected to identify the vastoadductor mem- brane and note its measurements. A vastoadductor mem- brane was identiWed in all specimens and was derived from the medial intermuscular septum. This membrane connected the medial edge of the vastus medialis muscle to the lateral edge of the adductor magnus muscle. Membranes were all wider proximally and narrowed distally. The mean length of this structure was 7.6 cm. The mean width of the vastoad- ductor membrane at its proximal, midportion, and distal parts was 2.2, 1.7, and 0.5 cm, respectively. The mean dis- tance from the anterior superior iliac spine to the proximal border of the vastoadductor membrane was 28 cm. The mean distance from the distal border of the membrane to the adductor tubercle was 10 cm. Seventy-Wve percent of speci- mens exhibited a fenestrated vastoadductor membrane. Branches of the saphenous nerve to the skin of the medial thigh pierced the vastoadductor membrane in 31% of speci- mens. Two specimens demonstrated branches derived from the branch of the obturator nerve that pierced this membrane en route to the skin of the medial thigh. Perforating venous branches from the great saphenous vein were identiWed in 22% of specimens. As compression of the femoral artery at the adductor hiatus is a well-recognized entity, the clinician may also try to explore potential compression of this vessel more proximally by an overlying vastoadductor membrane. The authors would also hypothesize that due to the intercon- nection between the adductor magnus and vastus medialis by the vastoadductor membrane that a potential synergy exists between the functions of these two muscles. Keywords Anatomy · Thigh · femoral nerve · Quadriceps · Lower extremity · Vastoadductor membrane Introduction The vastoadductor membrane is rarely reported in the litera- ture and to our knowledge, none of these has performed detailed structures of its morphology and relationships. In regard to this structure, Woodburne [14] has stated that in the lower one-third of the thigh, tendinous Wbers spread laterally from the rounded tendon of the adductor magnus toward the vastus medialis and end in the medial intermuscular septum. R. S. Tubbs (&) · W. J. Oakes Section of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Children’s Hospital, 1600 7th Avenue South ACC 400, Birmingham, AL 35233, USA e-mail: rstubbs@uab.edu R. S. Tubbs · E. G. Salter Department of Cell Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, USA M. Loukas Department of Anatomical Sciences, St. George’s University, St. George, Grenada M. Loukas Department of Education and Development, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA M. M. Shoja Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Institute, Tabriz Medical University, Tabriz, Iran N. Apaydin Department of Anatomy, Ankara University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey