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Anatomy and Variations of the Posterior Inferior Cerebellar Artery

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Anatomy of Cranial Arteries, Embryology and Variants

Abstract

Observations concerning the posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA) are mostly based on embryological studies, cadaveric dissections, surgical and angiographic evaluation [1–3]. The correlation between vascular occlusion and clinical implications as well as the evaluation of space-occupying brain lesions has encouraged numerous researches, thus exploring a scientific path of considerable interest [4]. This allowed embryologists, anatomists, neurosurgeons, neurologists and ultimately interventional neuroradiologists to carry out an extensive and in-depth research for the PICA. This phylogenic recent artery is one of the most complex and fascinating cerebral arteries with a high number of anatomical variations perhaps due to its late embryological development [5, 6]. In this chapter, we will develop each variation implicating the PICA after a little embryological remind and “normal anatomy” description.

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Robert, T., Cicciò, G., Bonasia, S. (2023). Anatomy and Variations of the Posterior Inferior Cerebellar Artery. In: Robert, T., Bonasia, S., Bojanowski, M.W. (eds) Anatomy of Cranial Arteries, Embryology and Variants. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-32913-5_17

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