The paramedian arteries, or posteromedial central arteries, are

pontine arteries The pontine arteries are a number of small arteries which come off at right angles from either side of the basilar artery and supply the pons and adjacent parts of the brain. The pontine arteries include the paramedian arteries The paramedian arte ...

– branches of the

basilar artery The basilar artery () is one of the arteries that supplies the brain with oxygen-rich blood. The two vertebral arteries and the basilar artery are known as the vertebral basilar system, which supplies blood to the posterior part of the circle of W ...

that supply the

pontine nuclei Pontine may refer to: * Having to do with the pons, a structure located in the brain stem (from ''pons'', "bridge") * Pontine Marshes, a region of Italy near Rome * Pontine Islands The Pontine Islands (, also ; it, Isole Ponziane ) are an ar ...

corticobulbar tract In neuroanatomy, the corticobulbar (or corticonuclear) tract is a two-neuron white matter motor pathway connecting the motor cortex in the cerebral cortex to the medullary pyramids, which are part of the brainstem's medulla oblongata (also call ...

corticospinal tract The corticospinal tract is a white matter motor pathway starting at the cerebral cortex that terminates on lower motor neurons and interneurons in the spinal cord, controlling movements of the limbs and trunk. There are more than one million neur ...

, and

corticopontine tract Corticopontine fibers are projections from the cerebral cortex to the pontine nuclei. Depending upon the lobe of origin, they can be classified as frontopontine fibers, parietopontine fibers, temporopontine fibers In the human nervous syste ...

, with rami supplying some

middle cerebellar peduncle The middle cerebellar peduncle (brachium pontis) is a paired structure of the brain. It connects the pons to the cerebellum, with fibres originating from the pontine nucleus and travelling to the opposite hemisphere of the cerebellar cortex. It i ...

fibres, parts of the

pontine tegmentum Pontine may refer to: * Having to do with the pons, a structure located in the brain stem (from ''pons'', "bridge") * Pontine Marshes, a region of Italy near Rome * Pontine Islands The Pontine Islands (, also ; it, Isole Ponziane ) are an ar ...

, and occasionally the medial part of the

medial lemniscus In neuroanatomy, the medial lemniscus, also known as Reil's band or Reil's ribbon (for German anatomist Johann Christian Reil), is a large ascending bundle of heavily myelinated axons that decussate (cross) in the brainstem, specifically in the m ...

Uncal herniation Brain herniation is a potentially deadly side effect of very high pressure within the skull that occurs when a part of the brain is squeezed across structures within the skull. The brain can shift across such structures as the falx cerebri, the te ...

can cause compression of the paramedian arteries and can result in Duret haemorrhages.

References

Arteries of the head and neck {{circulatory-stub

See also

References