THE FEMORAL ARTERY 195 



muscles just below the angle of the haunch. It splits up into a number 

 of divisions which are expended subcutaneously at the front of the 

 thigh. This vessel is sometimes involved in fracture of the haunch. 



THE FEMORAL ARTERY 



This vessel is the direct continuation of the external iliac artery, the 

 name femoral being applied to the vessel after it passes across the brim of 

 the pelvis. At first the artery makes its appearance from beneath 

 Poupart's ligament, and passes across the common tendon of insertion of 

 the iliacus and psoas magnus muscles, being related anteriorly to the 

 sartorius and posteriorly to the pectineus. Running downwards and back- 

 wards, it next lies on the vastus internus. Anteriorly it is still related to 

 the sartorius and posteriorly for a short distance to the pectineus, but for 

 the remainder of this portion of the vessel it is placed in front of the 

 adductor parvus. The artery is here covered by the deep inguinal lym- 

 phatic glands, and its position corresponds to that of the groove which 

 indicates the position of the interstice between the sartorius and gracilis 

 muscles. At the brim of the pelvis the femoral vein lies behind the 

 artery, but lower down the limb the vein lies beneath and partially 

 behind it. 



It crosses the back of the femoral shaft obliquely in the femoral groove, 

 and runs between the two insertions of the adductor magnus muscle. 

 Passing between the two heads of the gastrocnemius muscle, it is 

 continued as the popliteal artery. 



The branches of the femoral artery are as follows : 



I. The Prepubic Artery. — This vessel arises from the femoral artery 

 at the brim of the pelvis in common with the profunda or deep 

 femoral artery. It passes across the anterior aspect of Poupart's liga- 

 ment, and divides near the posterior border of the internal oblique 

 muscle of the abdomen, into the external pudic and posterior abdominal 

 arteries. 



