By Raul Fernandes, Medical Writer and Contributor to Vein News and www.VeinsVeinsVeins.com
What is the femoral vein ?
The femoral vein is a direct continuation of the popliteal vein just proximal to the knee. The vein ascends to the inguinal region, where it passes posterior to the inguinal ligament as the external iliac vein to enter the abdomen.
How many valves are there in the femoral vein?
There is renewed interest in this topic as some researchers are investigating theapeutic procedurs to implant femoral veins in order to treat damaged valves or absent femoral vein valves as a cause for chronic venous insufficiency causing venous stasis ulcer in the lower extremity.
Researchers have set out to deermine morphologic details of human femoral veins (numbner, diamter, etc).
Jonas Keller and colleagues performed anatomic studies in human cadavers and have published their results (see reference below).
155 femoral veins from 82 human corpses were examined. FVDs and tributary and valve topographies were assessed.
These are the major findings from these anatomic measurements:
1) The femoral vein diameter was found to increase from 6 mm in the distal femoropopliteal vein to 11 mm in the iliofemoral vein proximal to the saphenofemoral junction (SFJ).
2) Diameters were significantly bigger in males than females.
3) Height correlated positively with femoral vein diameters.
4) Distal to the SFJ, within a distance of 38 cm, one to eight valves were present.
5) Up to two valves were present within 10 cm proximal to the SFJ.
The authors concluded in their manuscript that:
1) " Individual tributary and (femoral) valve topography must be considered to ensure appropriate design and successful implantation of a venous valve for chronic venous insufficiency".
2) "A suitable implant site would be proximal to the SFJ via an infrainguinal transfemoral access".
Keller J, Schulze M, Claassen H, Wree A. Human femoral vein diameter and topography of valves and tributaries: A post mortem analysis. Clin Anat 2018; 31:1065-1076.