Arterial arrangement of the cervical spinal cord in rabbit.

The aim of this study was to describe the arterial arrangement of the cervical spinal cord in rabbit because it has been used widely to examine the pathophysiology of spinal cord injury. The study was carried out on 20 adult New Zealand White rabbits. We prepared corrosion casts of the arterial system of the cervical spinal cord. Batson's corrosion casting kit no. 17 was used as a casting medium. The origin of the ventral spinal artery from the right vertebral artery was found on average in 40 % of cases. The origin from the left vertebral artery was found on average in 35 % of cases. The ventral spinal artery raised from the anastomosis of two ventral spinal arteries on average in 25 % of cases. The presence of spinal arteries entering the ventral spinal artery in the cervical region was observed in 46.2 % of cases on the right side and in 53.8 % of cases on the left side. On the dorsal surface we found two irregular dorsal spinal arteries receiving dorsal branches of spinal arteries or they were absent. Until the cervical spinal cord arterial arrangement in species of laboratory animals is described in detail, it will be very difficult to determine the appropriate species for experiments in this field. Variations in arterial arrangement can produce biased or erroneous results in studies.