By means of perfusion studies, an analysis was made of the arterial supply to the proximal end of the femur in 150 specimens from autopsied fetuses and children, aged from 26 weeks of gestation to 14 years and 8 months old. All died of diseases which did not involve the hip joint. 2 anastomotic rings were found: an extracapsular one formed by the medial and lateral femoral circumflex arteries, and a subsynovial intra-articular ring at the articular cartilage-neck junction. The intra-articular rings in males were discontinuous more often than in females. A 3-plane analysis of totally-cleared specimens demonstrated that the epiphyseal plate constituted an absolute barrier to blood flow between the epiphysis and metaphysis in all but 2 of the 124 barium sulphate-perfused specimens examined. A smaller number of ascending cervical arteries crossed the anterior and medial surfaces of the mid-neck in the specimens from 3 to 10-year-old white children than in those from newborn to 2-year-old white and black children. This finding may be important for the etiology of Legg-Perthes disease. No differences with respect to age, sex, or race were found in the arteries of the ligamentum teres.
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By means of perfusion studies, an analysis was made of the arterial supply to the proximal end of the femur in 150 specimens from autopsied fetuses and children, aged from 26 weeks of gestation to 14 years and 8 months old. All died of diseases which did not involve the hip joint. 2 anastomotic rings were found: an extracapsular one formed by the medial and lateral femoral circumflex arteries, and a subsynovial intra-articular ring at the articular cartilage-neck junction. The intra-articular rings in males were discontinuous more often than in females. A 3-plane analysis of totally-cleared specimens demonstrated that the epiphyseal plate constituted an absolute barrier to blood flow between the epiphysis and metaphysis in all but 2 of the 124 barium sulphate-perfused specimens examined. A smaller number of ascending cervical arteries crossed the anterior and medial surfaces of the mid-neck in the specimens from 3 to 10-year-old white children than in those from newborn to 2-year-old white and black children. This finding may be important for the etiology of Legg-Perthes disease. No differences with respect to age, sex, or race were found in the arteries of the ligamentum teres.
Copyright remains with the authors and publisher.