Vascular dysgenesis associated with skeletal dysplasia of the lower limb.

Three patients who had shortening or absence of the fibula were evaluated angiographically. An abnormal arterial pattern was found in all of the dysplastic limbs. This abnormality was characterized by persistence of an embryonic vascular pattern, absence of one of the normal arteries, and failure of formation of the plantar arch. In each patient there was a large posterior artery in the leg, termed the tibialis posterior superficialis.