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Blood vessels of the brain
Last reviewed: 18.10.2021
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The cerebral blood is supplied by the branches of the internal carotid and vertebral arteries. Each internal carotid artery gives the anterior and middle cerebral arteries, the anterior villous artery and the posterior connective artery. The anterior cerebral artery is located on the medial surface of each cerebral hemisphere, in the furrow of the corpus callosum, skirting it in front and from the top (from front to back). The branches of this artery supply the medial part of the cerebral hemisphere to the parieto-occipital furrow. In its initial section, this artery connects to a number of lying analogous arteries with the aid of the anterior connective artery.
The branches of the middle cerebral artery located in the lateral groove, blood supply the lower and middle frontal gyrus, the greater part of the parietal lobe, the upper and middle temporal gyrus, the islet fraction.
The anterior villous artery, branching, forms the vascular plexus of the lateral and third ventricles. The posterior connective artery anastomizes with the posterior cerebral and internal carotid arteries. This anastomosis sometimes connects the posterior cerebral artery not with the internal carotid but with the middle cerebral artery.
The right and left vertebral arteries connect to the posterior edge of the bridge and form an unpaired basilar artery, which divides into the posterior cerebral arteries, and also gives the upper cerebellar arteries, anterior lower cerebellar arteries, the artery of the labyrinth (branch of the inner auditory canal), the artery of the bridge and middle cerebral arteries. The branches of the vertebral artery, the posterior lower cerebellar arteries, are also directed to the cerebellum. The posterior cerebral artery on each side bends the pedicle of the brain and branched in the occipital and temporal lobes (except the upper and middle convolutions) of the cerebral hemispheres.
On the basis of the brain there is an arterial circle of the large brain, in the formation of which the anterior and posterior cerebral arteries, the anterior and posterior connective arteries participate.
Branches of the cerebral arteries supply blood to the cerebral cortex and deep divisions of the brain. Within the brain between the arterial branches there are numerous anastomoses.
The veins of the brain flow into the sinuses of the hard shell of the brain. There are superficial and deep brain veins. The upper and lower cerebral veins, the superficial middle vein, etc., are superficial. They collect blood from a large part of the cortex of the cerebral hemispheres.
To the group of superficial upper cerebral (ascending) veins are veins located in the precentral and postcentral grooves, as well as the prefrontal, frontal, parietal and occipital veins. Rising up the upper-lateral surface of the cerebral hemisphere to its upper edge, these veins flow into the upper sagittal sinus of the hard shell of the brain. Inflows of the superficial middle cerebral vein lying in the lateral sulcus are the veins of adjacent areas of the frontal, parietal, temporal and islet lobes of the cerebral hemisphere. The superficial middle cerebral vein flows into the upper stony or cavernous sinus of the hard shell of the brain. The group of superficial lower cerebral (descending) veins combines the anterior and posterior temporal and inferior occipital veins. All of them flow into a transverse or upper stony sine.
The veins of the medial surface of the cerebral hemispheres flow into the upper sagittal sinus and into the basal vein, which belongs to the system of deep cerebral veins. In the basal vein, which is the inflow of a large cerebral vein (galenic vein), small veins of the anterior and posterior regions of the cingulate gyrus and the wedge veins pour in.
A characteristic feature of superficial cerebral veins is the presence of a large number of anastomoses. The lower and upper anastomotic veins are most well developed. The first of them connects the veins of the central sulcus and the average superficial cerebral vein with the superior sagittal sinus, the second - the average superficial cerebral vein with transverse sinus.
In the deep veins, blood from the vascular plexuses of the lateral and third ventricles of the brain and from most of the subcortical formations (nuclei and white matter), as well as the hippocampus and transparent septum, flow into the inner veins of the brain. The right and left internal cerebral veins behind the pineal body merge with each other, forming a large cerebral vein that runs into the anterior end of the rectus sinus. The veins of the corpus callosum, the basal veins, the inner occipital veins and the superior median vein of the cerebellum also enter the large cerebral vein.
The veins of the cerebellum are extremely variable, their number varies from 6 to 22. The veins of the upper and lower surfaces of the cerebellum, the lateral surfaces of the legs of the brain, the roof of the midbrain and the bridge unite into the veins of the scrap which flow into the upper stony sine.
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