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Artery of Percheron

A rare anatomic variant in which a solitary arterial trunk arising from the proximal segment of one PCA supplies the paramedian thalami and rostral midbrain bilaterally.

History and etymology

The artery of Percheron is named after the French neurologist Gérard Percheron, who described it in 1973 1).

Gross anatomy

The term is used to refer to a solitary arterial trunk that branches from one of the proximal segments of either posterior cerebral artery (PCA). It supplies blood to the paramedian thalami and the rostral midbrain bilaterally.

Artery of Percheron occlusion.

1)
Percheron G. The anatomy of the arterial supply of the human thalamus and its use for the interpretation of the thalamic vascular pathology. Z Neurol. 1973; 205:1–13