ABSTRACT
Due to progress in microneurosurgery and in interventional neuroradiology even intramedullary spinal vascular lesions have become more and more accessible and treatable. Unfortunately, a lack of knowledge about spinal vascular anatomy is evident in many conferences with neurologists and sometimes even with neurosurgeons and neuroradiologists. This might be a reason for unsatisfactory clinical results in the treatment of spinal vascular diseases by invasive therapeutic techniques. Furthermore, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) of blood vessels in and around the spinal cord have substantially improved. In order to provide a correct anatomical interpretation of the demonstrated blood vessels, knowledge of the anatomy of spinal cord blood vessels is the first prerequisite. The most precise and detailed anatomical description of these blood vessels was given by Kadyi (1) at the end of the nineteenth century. His work was published in 1889, seven years after the first extensive and comprehensive study performed by Adamkiewicz (2).
