Vascular Supply of the Spinal Ganglia

A great deal of interest has been taken in the structure and pathology of the spinal ganglia (Dogiel,1Ranson,2de Castro,3Truex4and bibliographies by de Castro3and Truex4), but hardly any attention has been given to their circulatory system. The blood supply and the drainage of the spinal cord have been studied by Adamkiewicz,5Kadyi,6Ziehen,7Suh and Alexander8and Herren and Alexander.9However, little is known about the vascular supply of the spinal ganglia, which lie well hidden in the intervertebral foramens. At routine autopsy these organs are never exposed from the ventral side, and after exposure of the spinal cord from the dorsal aspect the ganglia are usually removed incompletely, if at all, together with the roots or alone, with no connecting structures. Thus their relations with the segmental vessels are usually destroyed. MATERIAL AND METHODS