The experimental use of coronary arteries of swine to study drug action for clinical and surgical application is an important tool. For this anatomic study about coronary arteries, thirty hearts of Landrace pigs, of both sexes, 5 to 6 months old, weighing 80 to 110 kg, were fixed in 10% formalin. The coronary arteries and their branches were dissected until the visible ramifications. There was one left coronary artery, with length of 0.4-1.2cm, giving off 2 (80%) or 3 (20%) branches. The paraconal interventricular branch, with length of 10-16cm, emitted 16-25 branches, 52.3% for the right ventricle and 47.7% for the left ventricle. The circumflex branch, with length of 7-15cm, emitted 4-13 branches, 55.6% for the left ventricle and 44.4% for the left atrium. There was one right coronary artery, with length of 7.5-11.5cm, which emitted 12-21 branches, 57.4% for the right ventricle and 42.6% for the right atrium. The subsinuosus interventricular branch, length of 3-11cm, emitted 9-22 branches, 50.9% for the right ventricle and 49.1% for the left ventricle. The number of branches of the paraconal interventricular branch and the number of branches of the subsinuosus interventricular branch was similar for both ventricles. The results obtained in the present study compared with the literature indicate that the distribution of the coronary branches in swine and in humans is similar.
Coronary artery; anatomy; swine; heart
