A RARE VARIATION OF DOUBLE SUPERIOR THYROID ARTERY- A CADAVERIC STUDY

Dr. C. Subadha and *Dr. A. Thenmozhi

ABSTRACT

Background: Thyroid surgery is one of the major surgeries and quite often performed, a thorough knowledge of variations in the arterial supply to thyroid gland is very essential for surgeons to prevent alarming number of table deaths in patients with thyroid disease due to excessive and uncontrollable bleeding. Knowledge about the variations in the origin of superior thyroid artery and its branches are important for surgical procedures in the neck region, such as radical neck dissection and other neck surgeries. Materials and Method: 60 sides of the neck from the 30 formalin embalmbed cadavers on both sides (30 right and 30 left) were studied. Dissection method was employed for this study. The infrahyoid group of muscles were identified and reflected. The sternocleidomastoid muscle and superior belly of omohyoid were displaced laterally. The fascia was removed from the lobes of the thyroid gland exposing its arteries and veins and studied the origin of superior thyroid artery and its branches. Results: A rare variation of Double Superior Thyroid artery was observed in 3.3% of cases and the accessory superior thyroid artery originated in one specimen from the thyro-linguo-facial and the other specimen from thyro-lingual trunk, the main artery was from external carotid artery. Conclusion: From the present study it was concluded that the knowledge of variations of the superior thyroid artery can be used during thyroidectomy surgery and other surgical procedures in the neck region, where the ligation of all the thyroid vessels is highly essential to ensure proper homeostasis.

Keywords: Superior Thyroid Artery, external carotid artery, thyroid gland, thyroidectomy.