Variant anatomy of the central retinal artery (review)

Abstract

Retinal vascular pathology accompanies such common diseases as hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Early estimation of the retinal vessels’ condition according to ophthalmoscopy allows identifying pathology on early stages. To determine the degree of vascular pathology risk it is important to have a picture of the patterns of the retinal vascular bed organization. The purpose of the study is to determine the variant anatomy of the central retinal artery on the basis of the literature sources study and to find out the directions of its further research. Central retinal artery is usually a branch of the ophtalmic artery, most often it is represented as a first branch. Then it goes to the optic nerve, where it passes inside of the nerve. When central retinal artery reaches the optic disc, it usually branches into 4 terminal branches. These branches are dichotomously divided into upper and lower branches, which in then form the temporal and nasal branches. Accordingly, there are four quadrants of the retina, which are supplied with blood by these branches. Sometimes there are additional branches, such as frontal and macular. Also, the central retinal artery can branch into two separate trunks before reaching the optic disc, which affects the vascular picture when examining fundus. Venous system of retina is represented by the central retinal vein, with its branches which mostly repeat the course of the artery. In some cases, the cilioretinal artery, departing from the Zinn–Haller arterial circle, may be partially or completely involved in the blood supply of retina. Thus, the individual anatomical variability of the central retinal artery is that there are options of its onset, course in the optic nerve trunk and branching into terminal branches on the inner surface of the retina. The variability of values of blood supply zones of each artery has not been studied enough.

Keywords: human, eye, retina, central retinal artery, optic nerve.