Variation of branching pattern of middle cerebral artery among Tanzanian cadavers.

Abstract

The branches of middle cerebral artery are mostly the sites for aneurysms and the accessories arising from it are usually used as collaterals, therefore during surgical procedures it is necessary to produce the working place sufficiently and to prevent ischemic complication by avoiding injury to those early branches. So there is a need to know the anatomy of the middle cerebral artery, which is the common site for the development of these aneurysms. Knowledge on the early branches and the MCA, the size of these branches and the branching pattern will help surgeons to take necessary precautions in treating these neurosurgical pathologies. Also knowing the branching pattern of the middle cerebral artery will help the radiologists in interpreting the cranial magnetic resonance angiographies.

The aim of this study was to study the variation of the branching pattern of middle cerebral artery among Tanzanian cadavers, and postmortern specimens. In this study the branching pattern of the middle cerebral artery were studied among 70 human cadavers at MNH and dissection rooms found in medical schools in Dar es Salaam and Ifakara. The study cases were taken regardless of their age and sex differences, this was a descriptive cross sectional study, in all these study subjects a coronal incision of the skull were made to expose the brain and the middle cerebral artery was identified from the point it branched the internal carotid artery, we therefore measured the length of the middle cerebral artery using a tape measure and determined the branching pattern of the middle cerebral artery. All 70 brains had bilateral middle cerebral arteries which were continuous from the internal carotid arteries. In 50(71%) of the cases branched within the temporal region, while in 20 (29%) of the cases branched within the frontal region. In 58(83%) cases terminated by bifurcation while the rest of arteries, 12(17%) terminated by trifurcation, and also this study revealed that the average length of the middle cerebral artery from its origin to different parts of termination is 10.5cm,further the study revealed that 2(3%) of the cases showed accessory arteries arising from the prebirfurcation region. This study has managed to determine the branching pattern of the middle cerebral artery and these findings will assist clinicians in making proper and appropriate diagnosis of aneurysms and hence proper treatment, also further studies should be done involving larger sample sizes.