Artery of Percheron

The Percheron artery or artery of Percheron is an artery, which contributes as a rare anatomical variant of the blood supply to the brain. It is clear from the P1 segment of the posterior cerebral arteries both ( PCA) and is the root for smaller arteries, the parts of the thalamus and midbrain ( mesencephalon ) supply. The basal and medial thalamus is normally supplied by several arteries arising separately from the posterior cerebral artery.

An occlusion of the vessel leads to a bilateral paramedian Thalamusinfarkt. The Thalamusinfarkt may occur as isolated lesions ( 38%), in conjunction with an agent cerebral infarction ( 43%), together with an infarction of the anterior thalamus and midbrain ( 14%) and occasionally with an anterior Thalamusinfarkt without midbrain involvement ( 5%).

The vessel is named after the French neurologist and neuroanatomist Gérard Percheron († 2010) named, who described it in his work on the blood supply of the thalamus as one of four variants.