Arterial supply of the sciatic nerve

Research

My PhD study concerns the arterial supply of the sciatic nerve. Historically, Green (1832) was the first person described SA on post-mortem. The sciatic artery is an extremely rare congenital anomaly resulting in lack of regression of the embryonic dorsal axial artery (0.04 to 0.06%). The sciatic artery has several names as the axial,  ischiaticor persistent sciatic artery or ischiopoplitealarterial trunk. In an investigation of 82 hemipelvises, a number of sciatic arteries (SA) were observed arising as branches from a number of different arteries. Variant sources of the artery were observed in 13 specimens. In these specimens, it arose from the internal iliac artery in 1, the internal pudendalartery in 1 and the posterior trunk of the internal iliac artery in 11 specimens. The SA was found to give the following branches: the inferior glutealartery in two specimens, the superior glutealartery in 11 specimens, the obturatorartery in 6 specimens, the lateral sacral artery in 10 specimens, and the iliolumbarartery in 1 specimen. In 1 specimen where the superior glutealartery was absent the SA compensated. The SA was observed to give branches to the roots of the sciatic nerve within the pelvis: to the lumbosacraltrunk in 6 specimens, S1 in 6 specimens, S2 in 3 specimens, and S3 in 3 specimens. The conclusion is that the SA is more common than previously reported in the literature, has a variable origin and can provide an important arterial supply to the roots of the sciatic nerve which is against the embryological theory and classification. Therefore, this research study will improve understanding the sciatic artery origin, course and branch for clinicians to decrease the postsurgical complication.