A heat map of superior cervical ganglion location relative to the common carotid artery bifurcation.

Abstract

Determining the superior cervical ganglion's precise anatomical location for local anesthetic block, when stellate block is not feasible or is contraindicated, is difficult. We dissected the superior cervical ganglion in 60 embalmed cadaveric specimens. Multiple regressions determined whether subject characteristics predicted the distance between the superior cervical ganglion and common carotid artery bifurcation and the superior cervical ganglion dimensional width and area. Based on these regressions, we mapped the ganglion and common carotid artery bifurcation using a pseudocolor statistical heat map. The statistical model significantly predicted the superior cervical ganglion-common carotid artery bifurcation distance (P = 0.01), and the superior cervical ganglion dimensional width (P = 0.02). This study determined that the common carotid artery bifurcation is a good landmark for localizing the superior cervical ganglion for anesthetic block.