The extremely rare vascular variant of a segmental duplicated uterine artery and its relevance for the interventionist and gynecologist: a case report.

Gernot Rott,Frieder Boecker

doi:10.1186/s13256-016-0943-2

Abstract

BackgroundAnatomic variants of the uterine artery are rare, with the absence of one of the uterine arteries presumably being the most abundant variant. A duplicated uterine artery is mentioned in the medical literature, but to the best of our knowledge, an angiographic study has never been published. A partially duplicated uterine artery is an extremely rare variant not previously mentioned in the literature, and it could lead to technical difficulties or cause problems in various gynecological interventions.Case presentationWe present the case of a 45-year-old Caucasian woman with a uterine fibroid and typical fibroid-related symptoms who came to our department to get treated with fibroid embolization. During the procedure, angiography revealed a partial or segmental duplicated left uterine artery. This exceptionally rare anatomic variant proved to be beneficial for the safety of the embolization in our case; however, it is far more likely that such a variant would be unfavorable in some types of gynecological operative and minimally invasive techniques.ConclusionsKnowledge of the anatomic variant of a partially duplicated uterine artery is important, especially for gynecologists performing minimally invasive surgical procedures.

Highlights

Anatomic variants of the uterine artery are rare, with the absence of one of the uterine arteries presumably being the most abundant variant
Anatomic variants of the uterine artery can present challenging during Uterine fibroid embolization (UFE) and mainly concern the origin of the vessel
We describe a previously unpublished variant of a partially duplicated uterine artery and discuss its clinical significance for interventional radiologists and gynecological surgeons

Summary

Conclusions

A partial or segmental duplicated uterine artery with a duplication of the transverse segment (U2 segment) is an extremely rare anatomic variant. Knowledge of this variant is important, especially for the gynecologist performing minimally invasive surgical procedures. FB assisted the interventional procedure, studied the literature, contributed in writing the manuscript, and revised it critically. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript. Consent Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this case report and any accompanying images. A copy of the written consent is available for review by the Editor-in-Chief of this journal

Background

Discussion