Bilateral Tortuous External Iliac Artery: An Unusual Variation

Abstract

Bilateral tortuosity in the external iliac arteries is a rare finding in the cadavers. We report highly tortuous external iliac arteries of both the sides in a 60-year-old male cadaver noted during routine dissection. Left external iliac artery had a ‘U’ shaped loop and right external iliac artery had a ‘S’ shaped loop. The loops were found in the lesser pelvis in close relation to the obturator nerve and vessels which may get compressed by the artery. In addition the tortuous external iliac artery was also compressing the internal iliac vessels on both sides. Mild tortuosity is usually asymptomatic, moderate to severe tortuosity can lead to ischaemia of the organs or structures supplied by them or even ischaemia of the lower limb, as external iliac artery continues as femoral artery. Mild dilatation of the right common iliac artery was also present. Tortuosity of the arteries may be due to abnormal development or vascular disease, but exact mechanism is not known clearly till now. Anatomical knowledge of the tortuosity, aneurysm or kinking of iliac arteries is of utmost importance to the urologists, gynaecologists and orthopaedic surgeons so that they can correlate their findings and can take great care while doing surgeries on the pelvic region.

Keywords

• bilateral variation
• iliac arteries
• loop