Microanatomy of the Artery of the External Ocular Rectus Muscles: II. Arterial Distribution of the Rectus Muscles

ABSTRACT

The anatomy of the arteries distributing to the ocular rectus muscles has not been well known inspite of their importance during opertions. Eighty orbits of Koreans were dissected under the surgical microscope to find out the entering point and its distribution of each rectus artery. The average numbers of the branches of the artery that piercing the supenor, lateral, medial, and inferior recti were 4, 7, 7 and 6 respectively. The supenor rectus artery tended to pierce the posterior middle one third of the muscle; the medial and lateral rectus arteries tended to pierce the posterior two thirds of the muscles; and the inferior rectus artery tended to pierce the medial two tbrds of the muscle. The arterial branches piercing the anterior one third of the superior rectus were less than 1%, and those of the lateral, medial, and inferior recti were 5%, 10% and 15% respectively. The relationships between the artery and nerve differed in each muscle.