The cervical aortic arch.

Cervical aortic arch anomaly is a rare congenital entity. The aortic arch extends into the soft tissues of the neck before turning downward on itself to become the descending aorta. Nineteen cases have been previously reported in the world literature with one more presently in publication. We have collected six additional cases, in four of which the cervical arch was located on the left. Formerly the left cervical aortic arch was felt to be much less common than the right. It now appears that they have equal incidence. Four of our cases were also associated with cardiac anomalies, and this coincidence has not been previously reported.