Superficial occipital artery: report of a rare case and literature review

ABSTRACT

We report a rare case of an aberrant occipital artery found during routine dissection of the right posterior neck and the occipital region of an embalmed 67-year-old Caucasian male cadaver. The right occipital artery, having considerable size (diameter 4 mm), arose from the postero-lateral side of the external carotid artery just above the posterior belly of the digastric muscle. Consequently, the aberrant occipital artery turned laterally around the posterior belly of the digastric and the stylohyoid muscles, reaching the subcutaneous layer as it passed transversely over the upper attachment of the sternocleidomastoid muscle. Distally, the artery showed typical branching pattern. Detailed knowledge about the basic anatomy of the occipital artery, as well as its variations, are highly important in preventing complications during extra-to-intracranial bypass surgery and therapeutic embolization via this vessel. A careful preoperative examination of the artery is necessary to reveal some of its rarest anatomical variation

RESUMEN

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