Background: The unavailability of the superficial temporal artery (STA) and the location of lesions pose a more technically demanding challenge when compared with conventional STA-superior cerebellar or posterior cerebral artery (PCA) bypass in vascular reconstruction procedures. To describe a case series of patients with cerebrovascular lesions who were treated using an occipital artery (OA) to PCA bypass via the occipital interhemispheric approach.
Methods: We retrospectively reviewed three consecutive cases of patients with cerebrovascular lesions who were treated using OA-PCA bypass.
Results: OA-PCA bypass was performed via the occipital interhemispheric approach. This procedure included: (1) OA-PCA bypass (n = 1), and combined OA-posterior inferior cerebellar artery and OA-PCA saphenous vein interposition graft bypass (n = 1) in patients with vertebrobasilar ischemia; (2) OA-PCA radial artery interposition graft bypass in one patient with residual PCA aneurysm.
Conclusions: OA-PCA bypass represents a useful alternative to conventional STA-SCA or PCA bypass.
Keywords: Extracranial - intracranial bypass; occipital artery - posterior cerebral artery bypass; occipital interhemispheric approach; superficial temporal artery - posterior cerebral artery bypass; superficial temporal artery - superior cerebellar artery bypass.