[Arterial vascularization of the axis].

The authors have studied the vascularization in the axis by microangiography of bone sections from 5 foetuses and 8 adults. All the arteries originate from the vertebralis : periosteal vessels arising from anterior and posterior intertransversary arteries, supply arteries originating in ventral and dorsal arteries. There are 2 distinctive arterial arches, one on the anterior face of the first two cervical vertebrae, the other on the posterior half of the vertebral corpus of the dens. Vascularization in the dens has particularly been studied. There are no anastomoses between the arteries of the dens and those of the axis corpus in foetuses. On the contrary, there are such anastomoses in adults. The least vascularized zone seem to be the neck of the dens.