UNILATERAL ANOMALOUS LEFT COMMON CAROTID-ARTERY - A CASE-REPORT

An anomaly of the left common carotid artery was observed in a Japanes e male cadaver during an anatomy class at the Saitama Medical School i n 1995. The superior thyroid, lingual and facial arteries arose from t he common carotid artery, and the posterior auricular, maxillary and s uperficial temporal arteries arose from the common carotid artery by a common trunk. The occipital and ascending pharyngeal arteries arose f rom the internal carotid artery. The left carotid body (glomus carotic um) was observed to be slightly below the lingual artery, behind the c ommon carotid artery, and it was located at the level of the intervert ebral disk between C2 and C3 or at the same level as the right carotid body. The carotid body was richly innervated by a branch of the gloss opharyngeal nerve and by a plexus of sympathetic fibers from the vagus and glossopharyngeal nerves. We assumed that the artery above the lev el of the carotid body was the internal carotid artery; there was no s pecific external carotid artery and all branches of the external carot id artery arose from the internal carotid artery.