# 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.

## Key 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.