Superior medial genicular artery

Medial superior genicular artery
The femoral artery. (Medial sup. genicular labeled at bottom right.)
Circumpatellar anastomosis. (Medial superior genicular labeled at upper right, fourth from top.)
Details
Branches	Branch to vastus medialis, branch to surface of the femur and the knee-joint
Identifiers
Latin	arteria superior medialis genus
Dorlands /Elsevier	a_61/12156127
TA	A12.2.16.035
FMA	22584
Anatomical terminology []

The medial superior genicular, a branch of the popliteal artery, runs in front of the Semimembranosus and Semitendinosus, above the medial head of the Gastrocnemius, and passes beneath the tendon of the Adductor magnus.

It divides into two branches, one of which supplies the vastus medialis, anastomosing with the highest genicular and medial inferior genicular arteries; the other ramifies close to the surface of the femur, supplying it and the knee-joint, and anastomosing with the lateral superior genicular artery.

The medial superior genicular artery is frequently of small size, a condition, which is associated with an increase in the size of the highest genicular.

This article incorporates text in the public domain from the 20th edition of Gray's Anatomy (1918)