A patient with severe atherosclerosis of the external iliac aery and adjacent femoral aery is scheduled for coronary aery bypass surgery. The surgeon decides to use a long, mostly unbranched muscular vein found on the medial aspect of the leg both above and below the knee. Through which of the following structures does this vein pass to eventually join the femoral vein?
The vein described is the greater (long) saphenous vein, which stas on the dorsal surface of the foot, wraps proximally to follow the medial aspect of the leg below and past the knee, and then dives into the deep fascia through the fossa ovalis (also called the saphenous opening) to reach the femoral vein, which becomes the external iliac vein sholy after it is joined by the greater saphenous vein. The anatomic snuff box is on the wrist. Some authors also refer to an "anatomic snuff box of the foot," through which the saphenous vein does pass, but this is early in its course, and not just before it joins the femoral vein. The antecubital fossa is at the elbow. The inguinal canal contains structures going to and from the testes.
Anatomic snuff box
Antecubital fossa
Fossa ovalis
Inguinal canal