Surgical applied anatomy: alive and kicking.

The trend towards novel applications of anatomical knowledge in all surgical specialties should encourage medical schools to shape their anatomy curricula in tandem with such advances as they evolve. The high proportion of novel applications and descriptions of anatomy in general surgery indicates continued growth as a benchmark of anatomical understanding. Vascular surgery's proportion of novel application and description of anatomy may change the way students will learn vascular anatomy to incorporate endovascular, radiologically based approaches.