Comparative anatomy of the interrelations between the transverse facial artery and the parotid duct
Objective. The comparative anatomy of the interrelations between the transverse facial artery and the parotid duct throughout their entire length were studied. Material and methods. For the study, were selected male and female heads. The age of the cadavers ranged from 40 to 84 years. The total number of observations was 60, taking into account the study of the right and left sides of each head. On the selected anatomical material, we made a topographic anatomical study by the method of layer-by-layer tissue dissection. And also measured the sizes between different points on each of the heads for the purpose of subsequent analysis and comparison of the data obtained. Results. In the course of the study, we obtained the following data. We found a transverse artery in 83.3% of cases. Anastamosis with a facial artery was found in 82% of cases. The average length of the transverse facial artery, which we measured from the place of its departure from the superficial temporal artery, was 65.88±4.99 mm. Our obtained data differ somewhat from those available in the literature, we associate this with the chosen research method. In addition to the length of the artery, we studied the values of the angle of departure of the transverse facial artery, the average value of which was 80.79±14.93o. When describing the level of discharge of the transverse artery, we identified three zones of discharge and four variants of the interrelations between the artery and the parotid duct. Variant 1 is a «classic» or typical option, with variant 2, the artery lies on the surface of the duct, in variant 3, the artery crosses the duct from above to below in its middle third, in variant 4, the artery follows below the duct of the parotid gland. Conclusion. We think that it is important what we found the correlation of the variant of the relationship with the zone where the artery discharge.