Locating Femoral Vein by Anatomic Landmarks: A Cadaveric Study

TL;DR

This study measures distances to the femoral vein using anatomical landmarks in cadavers to improve IV access in emergencies.

Contribution

Provides new empirical data on femoral vein location relative to anatomical landmarks in cadaveric specimens.

Findings

The femoral vein is on average 80.16 mm from the anterior superior iliac spine.

The vein is 66.77 mm from the symphysis pubis and 20.93 mm deep from the skin surface.

Female limbs showed greater distances, with skin depth being statistically significant.

Abstract

Background: In circumstances of emergency or challenging peripheral access, the femoral vein serves as a vital intravenous access channel. The vein is commonly located by palpating the femoral arterial pulse inferior to the mid-inguinal point or by the ‘V’ technique. As femoral arterial pulse may not be non-palpable in some cases, some distances from nearby anatomic landmarks might help to locate the femoral vein for cannulation.

Materials and methods: In 54 dissected cadaveric lower limbs, the distances of the femoral vein from the anterior superior iliac spine, the symphysis pubis, and the skin surface were measured to prepare a dataset for locating the vein with the help of these data. The values were statistically analyzed.

Result: The mean distance of the femoral vein from the anterior superior iliac spine was 80.16±8.96 mm, the mean distance from the symphysis pubis was 66.77±11.08 mm, and the mean depth of the femoral vein from the skin surface was 20.93±8.84 mm. All the distances and skin depths were higher in female limbs; however, only the depth from the skin surface was statistically significant across the genders.

Conclusion: These datasets might be useful as additional support while performing femoral vein cannulation in complicated and challenging cases where the facility of radiological monitoring is not available.

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