Fibular artery

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Artery: Fibular artery

Cross-section through middle of leg. (Fibular artery labeled as Peroneal at bottom right.)

Arteries of the lower limb - posterior view. Fibular identified as peroneal at lower right.
Latin	arteria fibularis, arteria peronea
Gray's	subject #162 638
Supplies	lateral compartment of the leg
Source	usually posterior tibial artery, occasionally popliteal artery
Branches	communicating branch (to the anterior tibial artery) and the perforating branch (to the posterior tibial artery)
Vein	Fibular vein
Dorlands/Elsevier	a_61/12154284

In anatomy, the fibular artery (also known as the peroneal artery) supplies blood to the lateral compartment of the leg and is typically a branch of posterior tibial artery.^[1]

1 Structure
2 Nomenclature
3 References
4 Additional images
5 External links

[edit] Structure

The fibular artery branches off the posterior tibial artery in the upper part of the leg proper, just below the knee. It runs downward in the deep posterior compartment of the leg, just medial to the fibula. It supplies a number of branches to both the lateral and anterior compartments of the leg; it also provides a nutrient artery to the fibula.

The fibular artery is accompanied by small veins (venae comitantes) known as fibular veins

[edit] Nomenclature

At one point in its history, both the Greek term perone and the Latin term fibula were competing to describe the smaller bone of the leg. Many of the arteries, veins, nerves, and muscles in the leg are named according to what bone they are near (e.g. tibialis anterior and the tibial nerve are near the tibia). So the artery that runs near the smaller leg bone had two names: the peroneal artery and the fibular artery. The term fibula eventually became the standard name for the bone, but many of the related arteries, muscles, and nerves are still called by the Greek derived name peroneal. The Terminologia Anatomica, the international standard for anatomical nomenclature, states that both fibula and perone derived names are acceptable, but lists the fibula derived names as the preferred terms.