Gross anatomical classification of the courses of the human sublingual artery

The purpose of the present study was to classify the courses of the human sublingual artery. For this purpose, the arteries supplying the floor of the mouth and the tongue were gross anatomically investigated, using 101 sides of 53 cadavers. The courses were divided into three categories: those passing medial or lateral to the hyoglossus (Categories M and L) and that piercing the mylohyoid (Category P), which were subdivided into five types. Category M had one type regarded as the usual type in which the lingual artery took the usual pattern of distribution. Categories L and P, in which the sublingual artery arose from the facial or submental artery, had the respective two types and were collectively regarded as the unusual type. Sixty-one and 36 of the 101 sides were of the usual and unusual types, respectively, the latter of which included 17 of Category L and 19 of Category P. The remaining four were variations of the lingual artery itself. On examining the types by gender, the usual type was more often found in females (75.6%), whereas the unusual type was more often found in males (48.1%). Bilateral occurrence of the same type was often found in both the usual type (77.4%) and the unusual type (65.0%). Existence of the sublingual artery branch significantly increased the thicknesses of the submental arteries.
The classification proposed here will conceivably contribute to safer dental implant surgery and more accurate interpretation of angiographic images of arteries in the floor of the mouth.

内容要旨・審査要旨・論文本文の公開:
内容要旨 : LID201510271002.pdf
審査要旨 : LID201510271003.pdf
論文本文 : LID201604011001.pdf
本論文は, 著者TAKAFUMI MASUIの学位論文として提出され, 学位審査・授与の対象となっている。
The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s12565-015-0278-x