Vascular supply of the equine stifle joint.

The research article examines the vascular supply of the stifle joint in horses, ascertaining that the main blood supply is the femoral artery along with its branches.

Research Method

• The researchers studies the vascular supply of the horse’s stifle joint through the use of latex vascular injections on the pelvic limbs of three adult horses and six ponies.
• The dissection of vessels was performed down to the level of small arterioles – smaller branches of arteries that lead into capillaries, the tiny blood vessels that link arteries to veins.

Main Findings

• The femoral artery, along with its branches that enter the joint on its rear and medial surfaces, was identified as the primary source of blood supply to the equine stifle joint.
• The superficial blood vessels came from several sources: the caudal branch of the deep circumflex iliac artery on the anterior and lateral surfaces, and from the saphenous and descending genicular arteries on the medial side.
• The deeper blood vessels are supplied by the popliteal artery and its branches that are located on the rear side of the joint.

Formation of Vascular Rete

• These two layers of blood vessels (superficial and deep) met and branched out to form the vascular rete, a network of blood vessels that surrounded the joint.
• This vascular rete provided blood supply to the articular capsule (a sac that encloses the structure of the joint) and the internal structures within the joint.

Venous Drainage

• The venous drainage, the system of veins that carry blood low in oxygen away from the joint to be reoxygenated, paralleled the arterial pathways.
• This suggests that the veins and arteries in the equine stifle joint are aligned in similar pathways, which is a fairly common pattern in mammalian anatomy.