Bilateral quadricipital biceps brachii: a rare anatomical variation with clinical implications

  • Klea Ahmet
  • , Daniel Otero-Pfaeffle
  • , Olga Avilova
  • , Mohammadali M Shoja

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We report our observation of bilateral quadricipital biceps brachii muscle with usual coracoid and glenoid heads and two supernumerary heads arising from the anterior surface of the humerus above the origin of the brachialis muscle. On each side, the lateral supernumerary head merged with the fleshy part of the long head, and the medial heads inserted into the biceps tendon and partially contributed to the bicipital aponeurosis. The median nerve and brachial artery coursed medial to these supernumerary heads, which posed no perceivable risk of neurovascular compression. This variation highlights the complexity and clinical relevance of upper limb muscular anatomy. The occurrence of a four-or five-headed biceps brachii remains exceedingly rare. This paper includes a review of similar cases previously reported in the literature.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)642-646
Number of pages5
JournalAnatomy & cell biology
Volume58
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2025. Anatomy & Cell Biology. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • Anatomy
  • Histology
  • Developmental Biology
  • Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
  • Cell Biology

Keywords

  • Anatomic variation
  • Dissection
  • Upper extremity

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