Arterial component of the angioarchitecture of the canine ovary

In order to study and possibly identify a vascular pattern in the canine ovary, 30 ovarian specimens received arterial injections of a mixture of 'Micropaque' with hydrosoluble red pigment, followed by clearing. The aorta or the femural artery was catheterized and the injection was performed under a constant pressure of 120 mm Mg. The blood supply of the ovary is provided by the ovarian and the uterine artery. The former appears to be the most important of the two arteries since it is the largest and is the origin of a very rich vascular net in the ovarian stroma. It follows a helicine course w'ithin the broad ligament and enters into the ovarian stroma either by a single trunk or by two divergent branches, each supplying the anterior and the posterior half. When there is only a single trunk, one can see a vascular tuft totally occupying the stroma, with tortuosities running in the same direction as the longitudinal axis of the ovary. When there are two branches, the distribution is similar but with two tufts instead of one. From the ovarian artery several branches arise, the largest and most frequent being the lateral tubal artery and a branch which anastomoses with the uterine artery in the mesovarium. Other branches anastomose with one another or with branches of the uterine artery, forming a rich vascular net along the mesovarium. The uterine artery is situated within the broad ligament and runs along the lateral border of the uterus and up to the superior extremity of the uterus where it ends. Two of the collateral branches are constantly in relation with the ovarian blood supply. One of them enters into the ovary at its superior pole and the other anastomoses with the ovarian artery within the mesovarium. The two vascular pedicles were anastomosed by one vessel of a smaller caliber that rarely exceeded 400 μm in 28 cases (93.33%) corresponding to type II A₁ in 3 cases (10%) and type II A₂ in 25 cases (83.33%). The two pedicles were not found anastomosed in 2 cases (6.66%) corresponding to type II B. Types I, III and IV of the Mocquot and Rouvillois classification were not found in the female dog ovary.