Background:

the cerebellar arteries have been described as variable in terms of anatomy; which is quite relevant due to the impact on endovascular therapeutic and surgical complication.

Objective:

to characterize the common pattern and anatomical variants of the origin of cerebellar arteries.

Methods:

a descriptive study was conducted on 50 human brains obtained from the Legal Department of Amalia Simoni Teaching Hospita, in Camagüey. The cerebellar arterial system of each brain was further dissected.

Results:

the back-inferior cerebellar artery arose from the vertebral one in 90 % of samples; variants included five that arose from the basilar artery and five absent; its outer diameter average was 1.6 mm. The anteroinferior cerebellar artery arose from the basilar in all cases, asymmetrical at its origin level and 10 % was double; its outer diameter average was 1.39 mm. The superior cerebellar artery arose from the basilar in 94% of cases and from the posterior cerebral artery in 6%, 17 % was double; and its outer diameter average was 1.73 mm.

Conclusions:

the anatomical origin of the posteroinferior cerebellar artery is from the vertebral artery as common pattern while the anteroinferior and superior cerebellar arteries arise from basilar artery. Anatomical variants includes the origin of the posteroinferior cerebellar artery from the basilar or being absent; double or asymmetric anteroinferior cerebellar artery and superior cerebellar artery with origin at the posterior cerebral artery and/or double. The average of the outer diameter of each cerebellar arteries is less than two millimeters.

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