A rare case report of subscapular artery.

Abstract

Axillary artery is one of the most important arteries of the upper limb, which is a continua- tion of the subclavian artery. It begins at the lateral border of the first rib and ends at the inferior border of the teres major where it becomes the brachial artery. Axillary artery has six important branches included: 1) Superior thoracic artery 2) Thoracoacromial artery 3) Lateral thoracic artery 4) Subscapular artery 5) Posterior circumflex humeral artery 6) Anterior circumflex humeral artery. Subscapular artery arises from the third part of axillary artery normally and then divides into cir- cumflex scapular artery that extremely enters the triangular space. The other branch of subscapular artery, the thoracodorsal artery, accompanies thracodorsal nerve to lateral border of scapula and supplies and innervates that region. In this case the subscapular artery was absent in both sides and instead of that the circumflex scapular artery was directly derived from axillary artery and the thoracodorsal artery is separated from circumflex scapular artery as a thin and short branch, too. It seemed that the lateral thoracic artery, which was thicker than its normal condition, supplied the muscles of the lateral part of scapula and the thoracodorsal muscle. Other branches of the axillary artery demonstrated without any abnormally. Since axillary artery has the highest rate of rapture and damage coming after the popliteal artery, knowing the variations is important and essential for surgeons, radiologist and anatomist.