The individual variability of the arterial"corona mortis"

Background:”Corona mortis” is usually referred to in the majority of the bibliographical sources as an arterial anastomosis, formed after the connection between the pubian branch of the obturator artery and the obturator branch of the inferior epigastric artery. The metaphoric name for this anatomical variant describes the severity of the complications that may manifest after its lesion in case of a herniotomy or in the surgical interventions that are conducted on the acetabulum, with anterior surgical access pathways. The incidence of this anastomosis variates between 12-80%, its individual aspects and morphological characteristics were not mentioned in literature.

Material and methods: We have conducted a descriptive, retrospective study, based on which we studied the branches of the external iliac artery and the anterior trunk of the internal iliac artery on 197 angiographies, that were obtained from the  database of the Vascular surgery section of Timofei Mosneaga Clinical Republican Hospital, Chisinau, the Republic of Moldova archive in order to determine the incidence of ”corona mortis” and its individual variability based on gender, age and laterality.

Results:”Corona mortis” was identified in 39.08% cases, from which 30.96% were in the male gender and 8.12% in the female gender, the majority of patients being in the 61-70-year age group. The classical variant of ”corona mortis” called Lambda, was identified in 70.13% ofcases, the circle type – in 27.27% and the laurel wreath type – in 2.60%.

Conclusions: The knowledge of the uncommon anatomical variants of “corona mortis” is vital, because their lesion may lead to severe complications during surgical interventions in the pubic region.