Anatomical Variation of the Brachiocephalic Trunk and Common Carotid Artery in Neck Dissection

Abstract

Variations in the trajectory of the brachiocephalic trunk and the common carotid artery predispose to disorders which might be critical in a tracheotomy and/or surgeries. Dissection of 110 formol fixed adult cadavers, both sexes, were performed to increase the anatomic knowledge of the neck vessels and its variations. Cadavers were from the Laboratory of Descriptive and Topographic Anatomy of the Federal University of So Paulo-Paulista Medical School-UNIFESP-EPM. In 109 of these cadavers no variations were found while in one (0.9 %) it was possible to observe a variation in the trajectory of the brachiocephalic trunk and in the right common carotid artery.