454 Scarpa's Triangle 



SCARPA'S TRIANGLE 



Scarpa's triangle has its base at Poupart's ligament and its apex at 

 the junction of the upper with the middle third of the thigh, where the 

 sartorius passes over the inner border of the adductor longus. It is 

 covered by skin, two layers of superficial fascia, and by the fascia lata. 

 In the superficial fascia are the lymphatics and glands, branches of 

 the ilio-inguinal, genito-crural, and middle cutaneous nerves, and the 

 internal saphenous vein and its tributaries. 



The floor of the triangle is formed by the iliacus, psoas, pectineus, 

 perhaps by a little of the adductor brevis, and by the adductor 

 longus. 



The space contains the trunk of the common and superficial 

 femoral artery, which bisects the triangle, and the corresponding veins, 

 the deep femoral vessels and their branches, the anterior crural nerve 

 breaking up into branches, and the external cutaneous nerve near the 

 iliac crest. 



Hunter's canal begins at the apex of Scarpa's triangle, and ends 

 at the opening in the adductor magnus. Thus it occupies the middle 

 third of the thigh. It is bounded on the outer side by the vastus 

 internus, and behind and on the inner side by the adductors longus and 

 magnus. It is roofed in by a fibrous expansion from the adductors 

 to the vastus, and over the roof lies the sartorius. 



The canal contains the superficial femoral vessels in their proper 

 sheath, and the long saphenous nerve outside that sheath. The vein 

 is behind the artery, and slightly external to it ; and the nerve is 

 crossing over the sheath from the outer side. The nerve eventually 

 passes through the roof with the superficial part of the anastomotica 

 magna, a branch given off from the femoral whilst in the canal. 



The femur winds round the main artery. The femoral and 

 popliteal trunk of artery runs straight from the groin to the knee, lying 

 first to the front of the head of the femur, then to inner side of shaft, 

 and lastly behind it. In this changing position it is the femur that 

 winds round the artery, and not the artery round the femur. 



The common femoral artery is the continuation of the external 

 iliac from beneath Poupart's ligament for about two inches into 

 Scarpa's triangle, where it divides into the superficial and the deep 

 trunk. As the superficial femoral is the direct continuation of the 

 common, it is convenient to take the relations of the trunk in its con- 

 tinuity. (Its course upon the surface has been given on page 447.) 



Relations. The artery rests upon the psoas, which separates it 

 from the capsule of the hip-joint ; upon the pectineus, the adductor 

 longus, (perhaps) brevis, and on the magnus. The deep femoral vein 

 is behind it in the triangle, and the superficial femoral vein is behind 

 it in Hunter's canal. Covering it are the skin and fasciae, sartorius, 



