Arterial highways of the foot of the American raccoon (Procyon lotor)

Abstract

The vascular system is one of the integrating systems of the human and animal body. The course and branching of the vessels of various areas of the body follows general patterns. However, the variability of the vascular bed is quite high even within a single species of animal. The lack of data on both the topography and the peculiarities of arterial branching makes it difficult to carry out diagnostic and therapeutic manipulations. In addition, the data obtained during the study significantly enrich the available information on the comparative anatomy of the vascular bed. The purpose of the study is to study the main arterial arteries of the American raccoon foot area, to give them a morphometric characteristic. The research was carried out on 4 corpses of an American raccoon, delivered to the Department of Animal Anatomy of the St. Petersburg State University of Veterinary Medicine from veterinary clinics. Classical methods were chosen as research methods: fine anatomical dissection, morphometry, photographing and vasorentgenography. During the study, it was found that two arterial highways are distinguished on the foot of the American raccoon. The dorsal trunk is represented by the dorsal artery of the foot, the plantar trunk is represented by the middle plantar artery. The dorsal artery of the foot passes into the arc artery – the first anastomosis that unites the vessels of the two highways. The middle plantar artery gives rise to the second and third plantar metatarsal arteries and participates in the formation of a deep plantar arch, which is the second major anastomosis of the foot area. Axial and non-axial finger arteries also form collateral blood flow. Analyzing the obtained morphometric data of arterial highways, it follows to conclude that the plantar surface highways have the largest diameter. Thus, the diameter of the middle plantar artery is 1.72 times higher than the same parameter of the dorsal artery of the foot. The largest total diameter is characteristic of the arteries located in the metatarsal region, the smallest in the area of the metatarsal.