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Internal carotid artery

Artery of the human brain

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 3, 2025
Entity authorityQ515848 ↗
Source-derived summary

The internal carotid artery is an artery in the neck which supplies the anterior and middle cerebral circulation.

In human anatomy, the internal and external carotid arise from the common carotid artery, where it bifurcates at cervical vertebrae C3 or C4. The internal carotid artery supplies the brain, including the eyes, while the external carotid nourishes other portions of the head, such as the face, scalp, skull, and meninges.

Classification

Terminologia Anatomica in 1998 subdivided the artery into four parts: "cervical", "petrous", "cavernous", and "cerebral".

In clinical settings, however, usually the classification system of the internal carotid artery follows the 1996 recommendations by Bouthillier, describing seven anatomical segments of the internal carotid artery, each with a corresponding alphanumeric identifier: C1 cervical; C2 petrous; C3 lacerum; C4 cavernous; C5 clinoid; C6 ophthalmic; and C7 communicating. The Bouthillier nomenclature remains in widespread use by neurosurgeons, neuroradiologists and neurologists.

The segments are subdivided based on anatomical and microsurgical landmarks and surrounding anatomy, more than angiographic appearance of the artery. An alternative embryologic classification system proposed by Pierre Lasjaunias and colleagues is invaluable when it comes to explanation of many internal carotid artery variants. An older clinical classification, based on pioneering work by Fischer, is mainly of historical significance.

The segments of the internal carotid artery are as follows:

Cervical segment, or C1, identical to the commonly used cervical portion

Petrous segment, or C2

Lacerum segment, or C3

C2 and C3 compose the commonly termed petrous portion

Cavernous segment, or C4, almost identical to the commonly used cavernous portion

Clinoid segment, or C5.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Internal carotid artery” as artery of the human brain. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Internal, carotid and artery.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1998, 1996—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Internal, carotid and artery providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Internal carotid artery”, the useful work is to connect “artery of the human brain” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 3, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q515848. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1998 and 1996.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Internal carotid artery”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Internal carotid artery primary sources, Internal carotid artery archive and Internal research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Internal carotid artery” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.