Variation in the branching pattern of the four major caudal vessels emerging from the external carotid artery

Abstract

The branching pattern of vessels emerging from the external carotid artery (ECA) displays considerable variation. Knowledge of these variations is of particular interest to clinicians. Surprisingly, there are few reports in the literature assessing these differences with regard to gender and sidedness (i.e., branching patterns of the right vs. left neck). The objective of the current study was to assess the origin of the four primary caudal branches of the external carotid artery: the superior thyroid (STA), lingual (LA), facial (FA), and occipital (OA) arteries with regard to gender and side. Seventy‐three cadavers (35 male, 38 female) were studied (65 right necks, 62 left necks). We observed that the STA on the right side emerged from the ECA more frequently than it did from the common carotid artery (CCA) (28 and 20, respectively), however, on the left side, the STA emerged more frequently from the CCA than the ECA (34 and 19, respectively). We observed the LA and FA to arise individually more frequently than from a common trunk (right 72%, left 81%). We observed that the OA emerged below the origin of the FA more frequently than above (right 55%, left 64%). With regard to gender, branching pattern variation was similar for the vessels studied. We conclude that variation in the branching pattern is substantial regarding sidedness but not so regarding gender. This study was supported by the JMU Department of Biology.