Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Apr 12.
doi: 10.1007/s12565-025-00836-3. Online ahead of print.

A rare variant of double origin of the left vertebral artery

George Triantafyllou  1 , Panagiotis Papadopoulos-Manolarakis  2   3 , Fabrice Duparc  4 , George Tsakotos  2 , Maria Piagkou  2
Affiliations

A rare variant of double origin of the left vertebral artery

George Triantafyllou et al. Anat Sci Int. .

Abstract

The vertebral artery (VA) demonstrates considerable variability, including infrequent morphologic variants like double origin. The current imaging report presents an atypical case of a dual origin of a left vertebral artery (LVA), which was identified incidentally during routine computed tomography angiography of a 51-year-old male patient. The typical LVA originated from the left subclavian artery (LSCA), and the other one was an aberrant LVA (ALVA) that arose from the aortic arch (AA) in between the left common carotid artery (LCCA) and the LSCA. The two vessels (LVA and ALVA) converged proximally to the transverse process of the C6 vertebra. The embryological explanation for this variant likely pertains to the persistence of primitive dorsal aortic segments and intersegmental arteries. Although rare, with a prevalence of 0.1%, the occurrence of LVA double origin may have significant clinical implications, including alterations in hemodynamics, an increased risk of VA dissection, and complications during surgical or endovascular procedures. The identification of such variants through preoperative imaging is essential to prevent iatrogenic complications.

Keywords: Anatomy; Aortic arch; Double origin; Variation; Vertebral artery.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Conflict of interest: None. Ethical approval and consent to participate: The General Hospital of Nikaia-Piraeus Ethics Committee approved the study (number of approval: 56485/13.11.2024). The research was conducted ethically following The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki).

References

    1. Bordes SJ, Iwanaga J, Zarrintan S et al (2021) Accessory vertebral artery: an embryological review with translation from Adachi. Cureus. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.13448 - DOI - PubMed - PMC
    1. Jung S, Jung C, Bae YJ et al (2016) Duplicated origin of the left vertebral artery: a case report and embryological review. Neurointervention 11:50. https://doi.org/10.5469/neuroint.2016.11.1.50 - DOI - PubMed - PMC
    1. Lazaridis N, Piagkou M, Loukas M et al (2018) A systematic classification of the vertebral artery variable origin: clinical and surgical implications. Surg Radiol Anat 40:779–797 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Natsis K, Piagkou M, Lazaridis N et al (2021) A systematic classification of the left-sided aortic arch variants based on cadaveric studies’ prevalence. Surg Radiol Anat 43:327–345. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-020-02625-1 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Padget DH (1948) Development of cranial arteries in human embryo. Contrib Embryol 32:205–262

LinkOut - more resources