The evaluation of three-dimensional anatomy of the superficial temporal artery using the volume rendering technique

The superficial temporal artery (STA) is the one of the terminal branches of the external carotid artery. Three-dimensional anatomical structure of the STA can be evaluated by using three dimensional volume rendering technique (3D-VRT) from acquired two-dimensional contrast-enhanced computerized tomographic images. The raw data of the Three-dimensional Computerized Tomography Angiography (3D-CTA) was transferred to computer and recorded in a software program. This software program created the three-dimensional images of STA using these transferred raw data with the volume rendering technique. These images were evaluated in terms of the location of the STA bifurcation, the distance from the some anatomical landmarks, the inner diameter of the artery, and the type of the variations. The total number of patients consists of 53 (27 female and 26 male) patients. The mean age of the patients was estimated as 57.9 ± 9.7 years. It was found that the location of the STA bifurcation was over the posterior third of the zygomatic arch in 58% of the cases. In 40% of the cases the location of the bifurcation was above the zygomatic arch. The location of the bifurcation was below the zygomatic arch in the remaining part of the cases (2%). The STA images created using the volume rendering technique were evaluated in terms of the bifurcation point of the artery, the length of the bifurcation from some anatomical structures, the inner diameter of the artery and arterial variations. The results of this study showed that this technique might be helpful for the three-dimensional microsurgical anatomy of the STA in daily neurosurgical practice.