Non-bifurcating cervical carotid artery

Abstract

Three cases of an extremely rare anomaly of the carotid artery are described herein. In these patients, the common carotid arteries, without bifurcation in the cervical portion, supplied multiple arterial branches, which are more commonly branches of the external carotid artery. The non-bifurcating carotid artery continued into the cranium as a normal internal carotid artery. This anomaly can be attributed to a maldevelopment of the vascular network during embryogenesis.