Tropical Medicine & Surgery

Abstract

Pattern of Superficial Venous of the Cubital Fossa among Volunteers in a Tertiary Hospital

Azhar Amir Hamzah*, Saravanan Ramasamy, Azreen Syazril Adnan and Amer Hayat Khan

Background: The cubital fossa can be seen superficially as a depression on the anterior side of elbow. The arrangement of the superficial veins in the cubital fossa varies from race to race.

Objective: The aim of the study was to observe and describe the variations in anatomical distribution of the superficial veins of the cubital fossa among three major ethnic groups in Malaysian population.

Methodology: A cross sectional study was designed to examine the pattern of superficial veins of the cubital fossa among the randomly selected volunteers in Hospital Kuala Lumpur. A total of 300 volunteers including both staff and medical students belonging to three major ethnicities i.e. Malays, Chinese and Indians aged from 18 years or above were selected for cited purpose. Consent was taken and duplex ultrasound was performed using a single ultrasound machine from Philips manufacturer. The venous pattern of the cubital fossa from the right and left cubital force in each subject was drawn on a separate observational sheet. Based on gender and ethnicity the categorization of venous patterns in the cubital region among the volunteers was done.

Results: Six patterns of superficial veins of right and left cubital fossa were observed and the commonest pattern in both genders was median cubital vein joined from cephalic to basilica vein. Using Pearson Chi-Square test, it is shown there was no statistical significance difference between patterns of superficial veins on the right and left cubital fossa with gender since p value was 0.498 and 0.999 respectively. However, a pattern of superficial veins on the right and left do have a relationship with ethnicity since its p values were 0.040 and 0.008 respectively

Conclusion: There were significant associations between the pattern of superficial veins on the right and left cubital fossa with the ethnicity