Teaching anatomy of the lower extremity veins: Educational challenges

Recently, there has been a big progress in the understanding of anatomy of the lower extremity veins, resulting in the shift toward fascia-oriented topography of these blood vessels. Consequently, a new class of the interfascial veins of the lower limb has been distinguished. There were also importa...

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Main Author: Marian Simka
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2025-01-01
Series:Vascular Investigation and Therapy
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.lww.com/10.4103/vit.vit_34_24
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author Marian Simka
author_facet Marian Simka
author_sort Marian Simka
collection DOAJ
description Recently, there has been a big progress in the understanding of anatomy of the lower extremity veins, resulting in the shift toward fascia-oriented topography of these blood vessels. Consequently, a new class of the interfascial veins of the lower limb has been distinguished. There were also important findings regarding the embryological development of these veins, which enabled an explanation of their high anatomical viability and their association with the nerves. These discoveries facilitated a wide use of the endovascular methods instead of open surgical techniques for the treatment of varicose veins and other venous pathologies. Yet, the undergraduate anatomical education is still based on old methods, primarily cadaver dissections, which seem to be inadequate in terms of teaching anatomy of the lower limb veins correctly and efficiently. In this review, it is discussed how anatomical classes for undergraduate medical students could be performed, taking into account not only recent anatomical and embryological discoveries but also findings in the field of cognitive psychology and educational sciences. It is suggested to augment the classes with “living anatomy” utilizing ultrasonography, to integrate anatomical topics with embryological ones, and to include into the curriculum anatomical variability, instead of a single anatomical pattern.
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spelling doaj-art-57f51912cdcc420fbe60a3c4bcad794d2025-08-20T02:32:27ZengWolters Kluwer Medknow PublicationsVascular Investigation and Therapy2589-96862589-94812025-01-01811610.4103/vit.vit_34_24Teaching anatomy of the lower extremity veins: Educational challengesMarian SimkaRecently, there has been a big progress in the understanding of anatomy of the lower extremity veins, resulting in the shift toward fascia-oriented topography of these blood vessels. Consequently, a new class of the interfascial veins of the lower limb has been distinguished. There were also important findings regarding the embryological development of these veins, which enabled an explanation of their high anatomical viability and their association with the nerves. These discoveries facilitated a wide use of the endovascular methods instead of open surgical techniques for the treatment of varicose veins and other venous pathologies. Yet, the undergraduate anatomical education is still based on old methods, primarily cadaver dissections, which seem to be inadequate in terms of teaching anatomy of the lower limb veins correctly and efficiently. In this review, it is discussed how anatomical classes for undergraduate medical students could be performed, taking into account not only recent anatomical and embryological discoveries but also findings in the field of cognitive psychology and educational sciences. It is suggested to augment the classes with “living anatomy” utilizing ultrasonography, to integrate anatomical topics with embryological ones, and to include into the curriculum anatomical variability, instead of a single anatomical pattern.https://journals.lww.com/10.4103/vit.vit_34_24deep veinsgreat saphenous veinmedical educationsmall saphenous veinsuperficial veinsultrasonography
spellingShingle Marian Simka
Teaching anatomy of the lower extremity veins: Educational challenges
Vascular Investigation and Therapy
deep veins
great saphenous vein
medical education
small saphenous vein
superficial veins
ultrasonography
title Teaching anatomy of the lower extremity veins: Educational challenges
title_full Teaching anatomy of the lower extremity veins: Educational challenges
title_fullStr Teaching anatomy of the lower extremity veins: Educational challenges
title_full_unstemmed Teaching anatomy of the lower extremity veins: Educational challenges
title_short Teaching anatomy of the lower extremity veins: Educational challenges
title_sort teaching anatomy of the lower extremity veins educational challenges
topic deep veins
great saphenous vein
medical education
small saphenous vein
superficial veins
ultrasonography
url https://journals.lww.com/10.4103/vit.vit_34_24
work_keys_str_mv AT mariansimka teachinganatomyofthelowerextremityveinseducationalchallenges