Anatomical study of the branches emerging along the intracavernous course of the internal carotid artery in humans.

The introduction in the sixties of magnification tools in surgery has created the need for a precise anatomical knowledge of morphological structures that was previously unnecessary from a clinical perspective. In the present paper, we have centred our attention on the intracavernous portion of the internal carotid artery (arteria carotis interna) in humans for applicative purposes. With the aid of a surgical microscope and the corresponding microdissecting material we have analysed the branches emerging from this arterial segment. Our results are compared with previous data appearing in the literature, the latter sometimes confusing because of the different terminologies used to refer to these vessels. The elements under study varied greatly, but some basic variational parameters were deduced.