Background: The morphology of the internal carotid artery at the skull base is important in radiologic interpretation, surgery, and more recently, endovascular interventional and diagnostic procedures. Therefore, a thorough knowledge of the shape of the carotid siphon can be important in the clinical realm.
Methods: In this study, we evaluated the shape of the carotid siphon from a lateral perspective on cerebral angiography. These shapes were then correlated to the Lang and Reiter classification.
Results: Types A, B, and C were distributed as follows: type A 12 (30%), B 16 (40%), 12 (30%). There was no significant difference (p > 0.05) in patient ages between the three types (type A 54.6 ± 14.2 years, type B 55.1 ± 14.9 years, and type C 52.7 ± 16.9 years). Normalized for gender disproportion, there was no significant gender predominance for any type (type A female:male = 1.4:1; type B female:male = 1.1:1; type C female:male = 0.7:1).
Conclusions: Such a classification scheme with additional application in another group might be of use to future studies aimed at the morphology of the cavernous part of the internal carotid artery.