Understanding the patterns of superficial veins in cubital region: a cross-sectional study from Gulf Arab Populations.

BACKGROUND: Superficial veins in the cubital region are important for medical practitioners to access the circulatory system for various clinical procedures. Despite their clinical importance, these veins are known to exhibit constant variations in their patterns from population-to- population. This prompted us to explore the various venous patterns in the cubital region of the Gulf Arab population. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Arabian Gulf University, Bahrain, involving medical students from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Kuwait. This study included a total number of volunteers (n = 166). A total of 332 venous patterns in the cubital region were recorded by applying a tourniquet, using a standard protocol. RESULTS: The volunteers who participated in this study were the range of 17-27 years. Of the total participants, the majority were males (n = 139; 83.73%) with a lower number of females (n = 27; 16.27%) presenting 9 different types of venous patterns with type 6 venous pattern (29.2%) as the most common, followed by type 1 venous pattern (24.09%) in both males and females and in right-left sides. Type 5 was the least common variant observed in 0.3% of cases. Overall, no statistically significant differences were found between the variant venous patterns of the Bahraini-Saudi, Bahraini-Kuwaiti, and Saudi-Kuwaiti populations (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Our findings reveal that type 6 is the most common venous pattern, followed by type 1, in the cubital regions of both males and females of the studied populations. These observations are unique and inconsistent with the findings of earlier studies. Sound knowledge of these variant venous patterns is very useful when performing safe venipuncture and complex surgical interventions.