External jugular vein duplication.

The external jugular vein is a preferred option in the head and neck free tissue transfer as the recipient vein and for central venous catheterization. We report observations on a patient operated on for head and neck cancer in whom we observed duplication of the external jugular vein. The external jugular vein was seen duplicated in the middle third near the posterior border of sternocleidomastoid muscle before penetrating deep fascia. Although there are cases of duplication of the internal jugular vein, external jugular vein duplications were not reported. We think it was interesting, and this variation alerts clinicians and surgeons performing neck, vascular, or reconstructive surgery about unexpected variations of the external jugular vein in the hope of preventing inadvertent injury.