Collateral Circulation to the Brain of the Dog Following Bilateral Ligation of the Carotid and Vertebral Arteries

¹ From the Sections of Neurology, Physiology, and Pathologic Anatomy, Mayo Clinic and Mayo Foundation, Rochester, Minnesota

Ligation of various combinations of arteries in the neck in 21 dogs demonstrated that there is little clinical effect following ligation of three or less of the major arteries to the brain and that most dogs survive after all the major arteries to the brain are ligated in the neck. A procedure is described in which the collateral circulation is determined by injection of liquid vinyl acetate into the arterial tree in dogs immediately after death subsequent to one-stage ligation of all the major arteries to the brain. The main anastomotic channels are branches of the costocervical and omocervical arteries that join muscular branches of the vertebral arteries beyond the ligated points. No anastomotic channels were detected in the carotid systems.