Vascular Research of Pig Knee from the Perspective of Comparative Medicine

Abstract

Background

Pigs have long been employed as an animal model for knee-related diseases. However, vascular anatomy around the pig knee is rare. The objective of this study was to explore the vascular anatomy around the pig knee from the perspective of comparative medicine.

Methods

Fifteen fresh cadaveric hindlimbs of hybrid pigs were used in this study. The femoral artery was infused with red- or black-colored latex. The origination, course, and branches of the arteries around the pig knee were observed.

Results

The femoral artery around the pig knee has the following branches: the saphenous artery, the first descending geniculate artery, the second descending geniculate artery, several muscular branches, and the caudal femoral artery. The popliteal artery gives off the following branches: the medial sural artery, lateral sural artery, and 5 articular branches. The caudal tibial artery was very thin, whereas the cranial tibial artery was strong and gave off a cranial recurrent tibial artery running toward the knee joint.

Conclusions

With the help of 2 classic veterinary anatomy books, we described the vascular anatomy around the pig knee from the perspective of comparative medicine, which was useful for vessel-related studies using pig knees and was conducive to academic communication.