ABSTRACT
Because of progress in microneurosurgery and interventional neuroradiology, 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 lack of knowledge 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. To provide a correct anatomical interpretation of the demonstrated blood vessels, knowledge of the anatomy of spinal cord blood vessels is the first prerequisite. At the end of the 19th century, Kadyi (1) gave the most precise and detailed anatomical description of these blood vessels. His work was published in 1889, seven years after the first extensive and comprehensive study performed by Adamkiewicz (2).
