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Cerebral vascular territories

Dr John Chan and Dr Donna D'Souza et al.

An understanding of cerebral vascular territories is important in understanding stroke and complications from surgery and endovascular procedures.

Although one could be excused for thinking that within the brain, such a carefully organised organ, blood supply would be constant, the truth is that a great deal of variety exists. Two main factors contribute to vascular territories:

circle of Willis anatomy and normal variants
intrinsic variability in the extent of tissue each main branch supplies

As a result, different sources will each have surprisingly different diagrams and descriptions. What is presented here is a general ball-park scheme, with brief description of main branches and anatomy.

It is beyond the scope of this single article to describe each vessel / branch in detail, and links are provided inline to individual detailed articles.

General overview

The intracranial circulation can be conveniently divided into anterior and posterior circulation, on the basis of internal carotid artery and vertebral artery supply respectively.

anterior circulation
posterior circulation

Anterior cerebral artery

The anterior cerebral artery (depicted in yellow) is a terminal branch of the internal carotid artery. It is divided into 2 or 3 segments, depending on the author.

A1 segment : from origin to anterior communicating artery and gives rise to medial lenticulostriate arteries (inferior parts of the head of the caudate and the anterior limb of the internal capsule).
A2 segment : from anterior communicating artery to bifurcation in pericallosal artery and callosomarginal artery
A3 segment : major branches, excluding terminal branches, which supply the medial portions of frontal lobes, superior medial part of parietal lobes, anterior part of the corpus callosum.

For a full description please refer to : anterior cerebral artery (ACA)

Middle cerebral artery

The cortical branches of the MCA supply the lateral surface of the hemisphere, except for the medial part of the frontal and the parietal lobe (anterior cerebral artery), and the inferior part of the temporal lobe (posterior cerebral artery). The deep penetrating LSA-branches are are called the lateral lenticulo-striate arteries. The territory of the lateral lenticulo-striate perforating arteries of the MCA is indicated with a different color from the rest of the territory of the MCA because it is a well-defined area supplied by penetrating branches, which may be involved or spared in infarcts separately from the main cortical territory of the MCA.

Posterior cerebral artery

The P1 segment extends from origin of the PCA to the posterior communicating artery, contributing to the circle of Willis. Posterior thalamoperforating arteries branch off the P1 segment to supply blood to the midbrain and thalamus. Cortical branches of the PCA supply the inferomedial part of the temporal lobe, occipital pole, visual cortex, and splenium of the corpus callosum. In addition, the arterial supply of hippocampususually arise from PCA, including:

a) Antenor hippocampal artery, which usually arises from the PCA and less commonly from the anterior choroidal artery.
b) Larger middle hippocampal artery, most commonly arising from the PCA;
c) Posterior hippocampal artery, usually arising from the splenial artery or the PCA.

Anterior Choroidal artery (AchA)

The territory of the AChA is part of the hippocampus, the posterior limb of the internal capsule and extends upwards to an area lateral to the posterior part of the cella media.

Lenticulo-striate arteries

Medial lenticulostriate arteries

Branches of the A1-segment of the anterior cerebral artery. They supply the anterior inferior parts of the basal nuclei and the anterior limb of the internal capsule. Heubner's artery is the largest of the medial lenticulostriate arteries and supplies the anteromedial part of the head of the caudate and anteroinferior internal capsule.

Lateral lenticulostriate arteries

Branches of the horizontal M1-segment of the middle cerebral artery. They are deep penetrating branches of MCA. They supply the superior part of the head and the body of the caudate nucleus, most of the globus pallidus and putamen and the posterior limb of the internal capsule

Watershed zones

Watershed infarcts occur at the border zones between major cerebral arterial territories as a result of hypoperfusion. There are two patterns of border zone infarcts:

Cortical border zone infarctionsInfarctions of the cortex and adjacent subcortical white matter located at the border zone of ACA/MCA and MCA/PCA
Internal border zone infarctions
Infarctions of the deep white matter of the centrum semi-ovale and corona radiata at the border zone between lenticulostriate perforators and the deep penetrating cortical branches of the MCA or at the border zone of deep white matter branches of the MCA and the ACA

Corpus callosum

The corpus callosum has a rich blood supply, relatively constant and is uncommonly involved by infarcts. The majority of the corpus callosum (CC) is supplied by the pericallosal arteries and the posterior pericallosal arteries, branches from the anterior and posterior cerebral respectively. In 80% of patients additional supply comes from the anterior communicating artery, via either subcallosal artery or median callosal artery.

the subcallosal artery (50% of patients) is essentially a large version of a hypothalmic branch, which in addition to supplying part of the hypothalamus also supplies the medial portions of the rostrum and genu.
the median callosal artery (30% of patients) can be thought of as a more extended version of the subcallosal artery, in that it travels along the same course, supplies the same structures but addirionally reaches the body of the corpus callosum.
the posterior pericallosal artery (also known as splenial artery) supplies a variable portion of the splenieum. Its origin is inconstant, arising from P3 or branches thereof.

Basal Ganglia

To be added

Brainstem

To be added

Cerebellum

The cerebellum is essentially suplied by three vessles:

Superior cerebellar artery (SCA) (branch of the distal basilar artery)
Anterior inferior cerebellar artery (AICA) (branch of the proximal basilar artery)
Posteriro inferior cerebellar artery (PICA) (branch of the distal vertebral artery)

Superior cerebellar (SCA)

This vessel supplies:

whole superior surface of the cerebellar hemispheres down to the great horizontal fissure
the superior vermis
dentate nucleus
most of the cerebellar white matter