Anatomy of the epifacial venous system

The superficial venous system is basically different from the deep venous system. The superficial veins run independently from the arteries, they lie on the fascia and are partly separated from the subcutaneous connective tissue by their own fascia. This applies particularly to the great saphenous vein and the small saphenous vein. The great saphenous vein opens into the communicating femoral vein in the region of the saphenous opening of the fascia lata. The small saphenous vein continues into the thigh as the femoro-popliteal vein and finally opens into the great saphenous vein as the posterior accessory saphenous vein. The region of the opening into the great saphenous vein has many valves and side branches the most important of which are an ostial valve which is only sometimes present and the terminal valve. The latter is situated between the actual junction and the most proximal side branch. Even this is not constant and is found in only four out of five cases.