Eighty-two dissections of the lumbar sympathetic chain on 41 cadavers of Chineseadults were studied. It was found that the number of ganglia varies from 2--6. Themost common number is three ganglia, which was found in 38 dissections (46. 3％), thenext common number is four ganglia, present in 22 dissections (26. 8％). The symmetrical arrangement of the ganglia on both sides is uncommon. The loca-tion of the lumbar sympathetic ganglia with their associated vertebral bodies is also ofimportance. They usually overlie the vertebral bodies of the same number. A ganglionis present more frequently at the level of the body of the fifth lumbar vertebra than atany other vertebra. This was found in 69 out of 82 dissections. Variations in the number of ganglia may be accounted for by the fusion of two ormore ganglia into one large ganglion and the latter is connected with multiple spinalnerves. The fused ganglia found on both sides were 28 (10.2％), among which the fusionof GL_2 and GL_3 is most common. The direction of the communicating rami of individual ganglion varies greatly; theymay run either cranially, caudally or transversely. Therefore, the identification of anindividual ganglion by the direction of its rami is unreliable. The number of rami ofeach ganglion varies from zero to six, most of them having two rami. This was foundin 82 out of 248 ganglia (33％). Each lumbar spinal nerve receives 1--5 commnunicatingbranches, the upper two nerves mostly have two rami and the lower three nerves haveone only.