The Superior Cerebellar Artery: Anatomic Study with Review

Abstract

The superior cerebellar artery (SCA) is often described as the most consistent artery of the infratentorial group. Some variations were noted especially in the proximal part of the artery, such as duplication, triplication, and unusual origin from the basilar artery. It is consistently described as bifurcating into rostral and caudal branches when originating solely from the distal basilar artery. Duplication is mostly encountered as two trunks originating from the basilar artery, with the superior trunk bearing rostral and the inferior trunk caudal branches, respectively. In 14 brains with 28 superior cerebellar arteries, which form the basis of this article, the majority of the duplications were related to the basilar-artery origin of a marginal branch that is also one of the cortical branches of the SCA. Moreover, this kind of proximal origin of the marginal branch resulted in its being richer in perforators than one of distal origin. Other variations that were noted in our study were also those related to marginal branches. The majority of duplications of the SCA were related to the basilar-artery origin of the marginal branches. A proximal origin seems to confer on the marginal artery the property of being an important supplier of perforators. This perforator dominancy, as a result of proximal origin, of the marginal artery might be important clinically in cerebellopontine angle and clivus surgery. © 2007 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.