Inside‐Out Surgical Anatomy of Superior Laryngeal Artery Endoscopic Dissection and Proposal for Nomenclature of Branches

Abstract

Objectives To describe the inside out surgical anatomy of the superior laryngeal artery and to resolve the ambiguities in the nomenclature of its main branches.

Study Design Endoscopic dissection of the superior laryngeal artery in the paraglottic space of larynges of fresh frozen cadavers and a review of the literature.

Setting A center for anatomy encompassing facilities for latex injection into the cervical arteries of human donor bodies and a laryngeal dissection station equipped with a video-guided endoscope and a 3-dimensional camera.

Methods Video-guided endoscopic dissection of 12 hemilarynges in fresh frozen cadavers whose cervical arteries were injected with red latex. Description of the inside-out surgical anatomy of the superior laryngeal artery and its main branches. Review of the previous reports describing the anatomy of the superior laryngeal artery.

Results From inside the larynx, the artery was exposed upon its entry through the thyrohyoid membrane or through the foramen thyroideum. It was traced ventrocaudally in the paraglottic space exposing its branches to the epiglottis, the arytenoid, and the laryngeal muscles and mucosa. Its terminal branch was followed until it left the larynx through the cricothyroid membrane. Branches of the artery, previously described under different names, appeared to supply the same anatomical domains.

Conclusion Mastering the inside out anatomy of the superior laryngeal artery is mandatory to control any intraoperative or postoperative hemorrhage during transoral laryngeal microsurgery or during transoral robotic surgery. Naming the artery's main branches according to their domain of supply would resolve the ambiguities resulting from various nomenclatures.