Superior cerebellar artery

The superior cerebellar artery (SCA) arises near the termination of the basilar artery.^[1]

Structure

It passes lateralward, immediately below the oculomotor nerve, which separates it from the posterior cerebral artery, winds around the cerebral peduncle, close to the trochlear nerve, and, arriving at the upper surface of the cerebellum, divides into branches which ramify in the pia mater and anastomose with those of the anterior and posterior inferior cerebellar arteries.

Several branches are given to the pineal body, the anterior medullary velum, and the tela chorioidea of the third ventricle.

Function

The arteries of the base of the brain. Superior cerebellar artery labeled near center. The temporal pole of the cerebrum and a portion of the cerebellar hemisphere have been removed on the right side (left half of diagram). Inferior aspect (viewed from below).

The artery supplies:

• Superior half of the cerebellum
• Parts of the midbrain

Clinical significance

The SCA is frequently the cause of trigeminal neuralgia, where it compresses the trigeminal nerve causing lancinating pain in the distribution of this nerve on the patient's face. However, at autopsy, 50% of people without trigeminal neuralgia will also be noted to have vascular compression of the nerve.^[2]

See also

• posterior cerebral artery

References

This article incorporates text in the public domain from the 20th edition of Gray's Anatomy (1918)

1. ↑ Refer to diagrams.
2. ↑ Handbook of Neurosurgery, Greenberg, M.D., Thieme 2006

External links

• Anatomy figure: 28:02-07 at Human Anatomy Online, SUNY Downstate Medical Center
• http://neuroangio.org/anatomy-and-variants/superior-cerebellar-artery/
• Anatomy diagram: 13048.000-1 at Roche Lexicon - illustrated navigator, Elsevier