Meningo-ophthalmic artery

Last revised by Andrew Murphy on 1 Feb 2021

The meningo-ophthalmic artery is a variant arterial anatomy in which the entire supply to the ophthalmic artery derives from the middle meningeal artery. This variation represents one extreme of a spectrum of the persistence of the embryologic stapedial artery.

The meningo-ophthalmic artery passes through the superior orbital fissure, as opposed to the standard ophthalmic artery, which passes through the optic canal to enter the orbit

Choroidal blush will be absent on internal carotid injection.

Knowledge of this variant is essential to avoid occlusion of the retinal arterial supply during therapeutic middle meningeal artery embolization, e.g. for juvenile nasal fibroangioma. 

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