Morphometry of Posterior Cerebral Artery: Embryological and Anatomical Consideration

The posterior cerebral artery, a terminal branch of basilar artery, joins the posterior communicating artery to help complete the circle of willis in human beings. The circle of willis, thanks to communicating segments, provides a detour way to procure parts of the brain, which, due to insufficiency, do not get enough quantity of blood. The morphological variations of posterior segment of the circle of willis are of importance in the diagnosis and treatment of different cerebrovascular diseases. The present study was conducted on 30 cadaveric brain specimens with an aim to establish the average diameter of P1 segment of posterior cerebral artery at its proximal as well as distal end along with average length of P1 segment. Anomalous origin of the posterior cerebral artery, one of the important variations, was found during present study. The incidence of occurrence of the particular variant was found to be 6.67%.