In the scenario in which a 59 year old woman comes to her local hospital for uterine cancer surgery there is the chance that the Ureter could be potentially ligated. The uterine artery passes from the internal iliac artery to the uterus. This also means that it happens to cross superior to the ureter.
Some structures that do not have a chance of being mistakenly ligated are the ovarian artery, ovarian ligament, uterine tube and the round ligament of the uterus. None of these are close enough to have any fear of being mistakenly ligated.
The ureter runs under the uterine artery near the cervix; thus, the ureter is
sometimes mistakenly ligated during pelvic surgery. The other structures mentioned are not
closely related to the uterine artery near the uterine cervix.
