[Arteries of visual cortex]

The purpose of the study was to point out the arterial branches that are supplying the visual cortex. This study was carried out on 100 brains, fixed in formaldehid 10% and dissected under the surgical microscope; 20 of them were at first injected with colored nitrolac. It was observed the origin, relationships and distribution of the arterial branches, which supply these areas. The data obtained reveal that: medial face of the visual cortex receives branches from the posterior cerebral artery (throughout its collaterals: calcarine artery 100%, parietooccipital artery 96% and posterior temporal artery 92%; its lateral surface receives cortical branches from the middle cerebral artery (100%) and its inferior surface is irigated from collaterals of the posterior temporal and temporo-occipital arteries (100%). Some of the branches penetrate directly the visual cortex perpendiculary and others form at first, a superficial, pial network. The knowledge of arterial variants which supply the visual areas is very important for ophthalmologists, radiologists, neuroophthalmologists, neurosurgeons, for recognising their vascular damage in some complex neuroophthalmologic syndroms.