A CASE OF THE LEFT VERTEBRAL ARTERY ARISING DIRECTLY FROM THE AORTIC ARCH

Abstract

A case of the left vertebral artery arising directly from the aortic arch was found in a 58-year-old Japanese man during dissection at the Showa University School of Medicine in 2003. In this case, the aortic arch had four branches : brachiocephalic artery, left common carotid artery, left vertebral artery and left subclabian artery. In addition, the left vertebral artery penetrated the transverse foramen of the 4th cervical vertebra. This case can be classified as type C according to the classification of Adachi (1928), Williams et al (1935) and Nakagawa (1939) .