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C3 segmental vertebral artery diagnosed by computed tomography angiography

  • Anatomic Variations
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Abstract

Extremely rarely, the vertebral artery (VA) enters the subarachnoid space via the intervertebral space of the C2–3 vertebrae. We have identified three cases with this anomalous VA in the literature. We report here another case involving aberrant VA penetration of the dura at the C2–3 vertebral level diagnosed by computed tomography (CT) angiography. A 71-year-old-woman with memory disturbance underwent brain CT and CT angiography. The right VA was aberrant and penetrated the dura at the C1–2 vertebral level. On the left side, the VA penetrated the dura at the C2–3 vertebral level. To our knowledge, this anomalous VA is the first case of C3 segmental VA diagnosed by CT angiography. To prevent VA injury, it is important to identify this variation before performing a posterior fusion of the cervical vertebrae.

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Funding

This study has been received funding of National Medical Center.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, National Medical Center, Euljiro 245, Jung-gu, 04564, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Jong Un Moon & Myoung Soo Kim

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  1. Jong Un Moon
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  2. Myoung Soo Kim
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Contributions

KMS and MJU have read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Myoung Soo Kim.

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Conflict of interest

The authors report no conflict of interest concerning the materials and methods used in this study or the findings specified in this report.

Additional information

This article was presented as poster in The 58th annual meeting of the Korean Neurosurgical Society and The 2nd Joint meeting with the German Society of Neurosurgery in Seoul, Republic of Korea from October 11 2018 to October 13, 2018.

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Cite this article

Moon, J.U., Kim, M.S. C3 segmental vertebral artery diagnosed by computed tomography angiography. Surg Radiol Anat 41, 1075–1078 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-019-02193-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-019-02193-z

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