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66th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC)
Friendship Meeting with the Italian Society of Neurosurgery (SINch)

German Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC)

7 - 10 June 2015, Karlsruhe

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Opthalmic artery originating from the anterior cerebral artery: anatomical study, with histological and corrosion casting analysis

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  • Francesco Doglietto - Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Neuroscience, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
  • Francesco Belotti - Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Neuroscience, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
  • Marco Angelo Cocchi - Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Neuroscience, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
  • Barbara Baruffoli - Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Neuroscience, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
  • Luigi Rodella - Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Neuroscience, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
  • Marco Fontanella - Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Neuroscience, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. 66. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC). Karlsruhe, 07.-10.06.2015. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2015. DocMI.12.04

doi: 10.3205/15dgnc327, urn:nbn:de:0183-15dgnc3272

Published: June 2, 2015

© 2015 Doglietto et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Outline

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Objective: The ophtalmic artery can have an anomalous origin in 1-3% of cases. It can rarely originate from the anterior cerebral artery, an anatomical variation that has been described mainly in angiographic and operative cases. Herein we provide the first anatomical, radiological and histological description of such an anomalous origin.

Method: During the surgical dissection of an 81-year-old caucasian male, the absence of the right ophtalmic artery was evident from an endonasal transsphenoidal perspective. The head, that had undergone a high resolution CT, was then studied in detail from a radiological, anatomical and histological perspective.

Results: Considering that the right OphA appeared too small to feed the entire right orbit, we accurately checked the cone beam CT and discovered that, on the same side of the OphA with an anomalous origin, a meningolacrimal artery was present, establishing an intraorbital anastomosis between ICA and ECA arterial systems. The corrosion casting of the right cranial base and splanchnocranium permitted to better appreciate the course of the meningolacrimal artery along the middle skull base until the superior orbital fissure. Histological analysis of both ICAs documented less collagen fibres on the anomalous side.

Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge this is the first thorough anatomical report of a rare origin of the ophtalmic artery. Histological examination documented a clear difference in the collagen content of the tunicae media and adventia of the ICA before the anomalous origin. This might have implications for the formation of aneurysms when this variant is present.