[Arterial vascularization of the triceps sural muscle]

The triceps surae muscle, the dorsal and medial leg skin constitute a very important reserve of muscular and myocutaneous flaps. The material on which the study was carried out consisted of 20 legs from standard cadavers. The superficialis femoral artery was injected with terebenthene and minimum mixture. The medial head of gastrocnemius is 23.3 em long, 6.9 cm wide, 1.25 mm thick at distal third. Its dominant blood supply is carried by the medialis gastrocnemius artery. It rises from popliteal artery 1.2 cm above the femoral tibial articulation with 1.9 mm diameter. It runs 3 cm down before entering muscle where it provides 2 or 3 mean branches. These branches give musculocutaneous arteries to the skin of the dorsal leg. The same study was performed for the lateral head of gastrocnemius and soleus. We studied also arteries of dorsomedial leg skin. The characteristics of long saphenous and short saphenous arteries were described. These muscles and dorsomedial leg skin can be used as muscular or myocutaneous flap for covering defects between the lower leg and the lower thigh.