A bilateral CTA study of 170 carotid axes that separates the origin of the ascending pharyngeal artery from the complete sequential branching pattern of the external carotid artery.
Type II—origin from the posterior wall of the external carotid artery—was most common, but six origin states and 40 sequential ECA branching types were documented. Side and sex did not produce statistically significant overall pattern differences.
Bilateral CTA makes the study especially useful for procedural anatomy because the right and left sides were evaluated as paired vascular systems rather than isolated arteries.
54 men and 31 women.
Both sides assessed in every patient.
Years in the analysed cohort.
Type 0 plus Types I–V.
Percentages refer to all 170 carotid axes and explain why the Type II posterior-wall origin cannot be treated as a safe universal template.
The most frequent bilateral combination was Type I on the right with Type II on the left (19 of 85 patients; 22.35%). Seventeen different right–left combinations were identified.
Most frequent paired pattern: right ECA-medial and left ECA-posterior.
APA absent bilaterally in 11 of 85 patients.
Overall frequency of the suprahyoid origin level among all sides.
This version now includes a locally bundled diagram set based on the article’s diagrammatic figures, with all three figures displayed at equal width and one per row.
The origin type tells where the APA starts. The S-type sequence tells in what order the ECA branches actually emerge, which is the more operational classification during surgical or endovascular planning.
Complete sequential ECA branching patterns were catalogued.
Twenty-three patterns occurred in fewer than five carotid axes each.
Types 0 and IV are grouped as S0 because the APA is absent from the ECA branching sequence.