Anatomic variation of the facial artery and its implications for facial surgery: a case report

Abstract

Introduction: Vascular variations are congenital morphological differences that arise in the human body. Although, for the most part, do not cause injury to the individual, may be important in cases where it is necessary a specific access to the vascular system. The anatomic understanding of the facial artery and its branches are especially important in the practice of medical and dental care, in the surgeries of neck and face; and also for the radiologist to understand and interpret facial artery imaging when undertaking head angiography. The variations found in the formation and trajectories of the facial artery are described, however in the case studied, we described a morphological aspect until then not documented. In this sense, the objective of this study was to report a variation of the facial artery and to analyze it in relation to the literature state of the art. Case Report: During a head dissection of an adult male human cadaver fixed in 10% formaldehyde we identified a variation of the facial artery branches. We reported, in the right hemiface, a supernumerary branch of the facial artery emerged between the origins of submentual and inferior lip arteries, close to the bottom edge of the mandible body, going towards the infra-orbital region. Discussion: The report of a considerable caliber atypical branching of the facial artery deserves attention because of the large number of interventions in this region, not only in cases of trauma, but also in cases of elective surgeries of face pathologies.

Keywords

facial artery - anatomic variation - vascular variation - vascular surgery