S. Marinkovic et al., THE NEUROVASCULAR RELATIONSHIPS AND THE BLOOD-SUPPLY OF THE TROCHLEARNERVE - SURGICAL ANATOMY OF ITS CISTERNAL SEGMENT, Neurosurgery, 38(1), 1996, pp. 161-169
WE EXAMINED IN detail the cisternal segments of 15 trochlear nerves in
brain stems injected with India ink and fixed in formalin. The nerves
were found to emerge as singular trunks (33.3%), singular trunks with
accessory rootlets (13.3%), or two or three roots with (26.7%) or wit
hout accessory rootlets (26.7%). The nerves were in close relationship
or in contact with the superior cerebellar artery, that is, with the
main trunk of the superior cerebellar artery, its medial and lateral t
erminal stems, the accessory superior cerebellar artery, and the vermi
an, paravermian, collicular, and lateral hemispheric arteries as well
as their small branches. Some of these vessels were connected by anast
omoses in 86.7% of the cases. The anastomotic channels varied from 40
to 530 Ecm in diameter. The cisternal segment of each trochlear nerve
was usually supplied by a single long artery, which most often arose f
rom the vermian artery (26.7%) or the collicular artery (26.7%). The f
eeding vessel ranged from 30 to 80 mu m in caliber. We discuss the pos
sible clinical significance of the anatomic data observed in the prese
nt study.