[Arteries of visual cortex].

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to point out the arterial branches that are supplying the visual cortex. This study was carried out on 100 brains, fixed in formaldehid 10% and dissected under the surgical microscope; 20 of them were at first injected with colored nitrolac. It was observed the origin, relationships and distribution of the arterial branches, which supply these areas. The data obtained reveal that: medial face of the visual cortex receives branches from the posterior cerebral artery (throughout its collaterals: calcarine artery 100%, parietooccipital artery 96% and posterior temporal artery 92%; its lateral surface receives cortical branches from the middle cerebral artery (100%) and its inferior surface is irigated from collaterals of the posterior temporal and temporo-occipital arteries (100%). Some of the branches penetrate directly the visual cortex perpendiculary and others form at first, a superficial, pial network. The knowledge of arterial variants which supply the visual areas is very important for ophthalmologists, radiologists, neuroophthalmologists, neurosurgeons, for recognising their vascular damage in some complex neuroophthalmologic syndroms.