Co-occurrence of asymmetrical bilateral extensor carpi radialis intermedius and bilateral sternalis muscles in an anatomical donor.

Abstract

The presence of anatomical variants in the body may pose clinical challenges to inexperienced surgeons or clinicians and could cause misdiagnosis or treatment errors. Similarly, anatomical variations in cadavers pose educational dilemmas to students in gross anatomy dissection because of the inadequate coverage of anatomical variants in currently available resources, including textbooks. Students experience challenges in their learning experience, dissection process, and translation of clinically relevant information when presented with an anatomical variation. The authors report the rare finding of a bilateral sternalis muscle variant and asymmetrically bilateral extensor carpi radialis intermedius muscles in a single anatomical donor during dissection and the dilemma of students to find out what they were.