Surgical Production of Collateral Intracranial Circulation. An Experimental Study

Abstract

Beck1,23 and O'Shaughnessy4,5, 6 have demonstrated that an effective collateral blood supply to the heart can be established by the use of pedicled muscle and omental grafts. Others7,89 have similarly employed the omentum to augment the circulation to the kidneys. The present experiments10 were performed to determine whether an accessory arterial blood supply from an extracranial source could be provided for the brain by applying to its cortical surface a pedicled graft of temporal or suboccipital muscles.Monkeys (Macaca mulatta) weighing 2 to 3 kilos were used as experimental animals. The operative approach and technic, as well as the sequence of the procedures, varied slightly during the course of the experiments, but the main objectives in each instance remained the same. After either preliminary or concomitant ligation of one or more of the main arteries to the brain, the superior border of the temporal muscle was separated from its origin and reflected to expose most of the underlying squamous portio...