Blood Supply of the Sciatic Nerve and Its Popliteal Divisions in Man

The results of an anatomic study of the blood supply of the peripheral nerves of the upper limb in man have been described in a previous paper (Sunderland1). The investigation which forms the subject of the present report represents an extension of those studies and covers the blood supply of the sciatic nerve and its popliteal divisions. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Information concerning the blood supply of the sciatic nerve and its divisions is contained in the works of Haller,2Walter,3Hyrtl,4Henle,5Holl,6Quénu and Lejars,7Bartholdy,8Tonkoff,9Chaumet, Heymann and Mouchet,10Portal,11Rauber12and Sappey.12Their descriptions are, however, with the exception of those by Tonkoff and Bartholdy, brief and incomplete and cover only sections of the nerve. The present investigation was undertaken to extend the observations of Tonkoff and Bartholdy and was based on a