[An anatomic study on the relationship of the recurrent perforating artery and the facial nerve and the vestibulocochlear nerve].

OBJECTIVE: To privde useful anatomic data for the microvascular decompression surgery of the vestibulocochlear nerve in the cerebellopontine angle. METHOD: The recurrent perforating artery related with VN in the cerebellopontine angle were examined with operating microscope in 20 adult head cadavers fixed with formalin. RESULT: The recurrent perforating artery was identified in 40 specimens with cerebellopontine angles. There was one recurrent perforating artery in 30 cerebellopontine angles and two in 10. In thirty-two (80%) the recurrent perforating arteries passed between the facial nerve and the vestibulocochlear nerve. In the thirty-two cerebellopontine angles, some recurrent perforating arteries (87.5%) were located in the external two-third part of the facial nerve and vestibulocochlear nerve in the cerebellopontine angle. In thirty-eight (95%) the vestibulocochlear nerves had contact with the anterior inferior cerebellar artery or its branches. Among them, twenty (50%) had two or more branches contacted with the vestibulocochlear nerves. CONCLUSION: These data may be helpful in the microvascular decompression surgery of the vestibulocochlear nerve, and in the radiography of cerebellopontine angle.