Anatomical variants of the lateral femoral circumflex artery: an angiographic study.

The descending branch of the lateral femoral circumflex artery (LFCA) has found recent use as a new arterial graft for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Anatomical variants of the LFCA were assessed on femoral arteriograms obtained before CABG in 131 adult patients. The most common pattern, found in 78.6% of extremities, consisted of the LFCA arising from the deep femoral artery, and the arterial graft was selected from this pattern in 92.3% of patients in whom the descending branch of the LFCA was used for CABG.