Occlusion of radicular arteries - reasons, consequences and anastomotic substitution pathways.

Abstract

To investigate the cause of radicular artery occlusion. Fifty specimens of spinal cords were taken at postmortem from individuals in whom no symptoms of spinal cord and spine injuries were present in life. The spinal cord arterial system was filled with colour contrast material and then each radicular antery was studied individually at 5 - 25 operative microscope magnification. Two hundred and fifty two anterior radicular arteries joining the anterior spinal artery and 525 posterior radicular arteries joining the posterior spinal arteries were examined. There were five obstructed vessels: four were anterior radicular arteries including the artery of Adamkiewicz and one of the initial branches of the spinal artery originating from the vertebral artery. As the presented examples show, the formation of a fully efficient collateral circulation is possible.