Anatom3DLeft posterior communicating artery
Arteria communicans posterior sinistra · Levá zadní spojovací tepna
Heart & arteries
Looks like
A short artery on the underside of the brain joining the internal carotid to the posterior cerebral artery on each side.
What it does
Links the front and back blood supplies of the brain and sends small branches into the thalamus and hypothalamus.
Keeping it well
A common aneurysm site; one pressing on the nerve beside it gives a droopy lid and wide pupil with headache — an emergency.
Related conditions
- Brain aneurysm
- Carotid artery stenosis
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- Hypothermia & frostbite
- Ischaemic stroke
- Kawasaki disease
- Metabolic syndrome
- Orthostatic hypotension & POTS
- Peripheral artery disease
- Phaeochromocytoma & hyperaldosteronism
- Pre-eclampsia
- Raynaud's phenomenon
- Retinal artery occlusion (eye stroke)
- Sepsis
- Shock (circulatory failure)
- Takayasu arteritis
- Transient ischaemic attack
- Vasculitis (GCA & others)