Digital venous anatomy.

The veins of the digits and their valves were studied in nine cadaveric hands by sequential angiography, microdissection, routine histology, cross-sectional microradiography, and corrosion casting. The findings revealed a pattern of dorsal venous arches situated over each digit. Connections between those arches were at the level of the metacarpal heads, the point at which most of the palmar venous blood joins the dorsal system by intercapitular veins. A system of valves, which were arranged so as to direct flow from distal to proximal, from palmar to dorsal, and from radial to ulnar in the hand, was present in all veins as far distal as the pulp.