Clinical anatomy of the lingual artery / 中国耳鼻咽喉头颈外科

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE To provide the clinical anatomy data of the lingual artery for clinical application concerning about the lingual artery. METHODS CTA examination of the carotid artery was performed in 80 adult volunteers. The 3D reconstruction images of the carotid artery with hyoid bone were obtained by using 64-slices spiral CT. At the same time, 20 extraoral dissections of the submandibular region were performed on 10 human cadavers. The origin, pathway, and anatomic relations of the lingual artery in CTA and cadavers were studied. The distance from the origin of the lingual artery to the bifurcation of the common carotid artery and tip of the greater horn of hyoid bone were separately measured, and the distance between the segment of the greater horn of hyoid bone of lingual artery and the middle of greater horn of hyoid bone were also measured. And the contrast analysis was carried on the result. RESULTS The lingual artery was mainly come from the external carotid artery (74.4 % in the CTA; 80% in the Cadavers), the next origin was come from the facial artery (23.1 % in the CTA; 20 % in the Cadavers), and it was few to found that the lingual artery had origin in the superior thyroid artery, which was 2.5 % in CTA and none in Cadavers. The path of the lingual artery had high variation, but the position between the segment of the greater horn of hyoid bone of lingual artery and the greater horn of hyoid bone had constancy relatively. The lingual artery run forward with approximation parallel to the greater horn of hyoid bone into tongue,and which located in thesuperior to the greater horn of hyoid bone (2.32?1.29 mm) or in the inferior to the greater horn of hyoid bone (2.00?1.68 mm). The distances from the origin of the lingual artery to the bifurcation of the common carotid artery and tip of the greater horn of hyoid bone in CTA and cadavers were (12.93?7.36) mm, (10.40?5.75) mmand (14.80?6.18) mm, (8.35?5.44) mm respectively. CONCLUSION The lingual artery can be show clearly in CTA and can get the anatomy data in physiological condition with CTA.