Page "Internal carotid artery" Paragraph 1

Terminologia Anatomica in 1998 subdivided the artery into four parts: " cervical ", " petrous ", " cavernous ", and " cerebral ".

However, in clinical settings, the classification system of the internal carotid artery follows the 1996 recommendations by Bouthillier, and describes seven anatomical segments of the internal carotid artery.

The Bouthillier system is often used clinically by neurosurgeons, neuroradiologists and neurologists.

This nomenclature system is a clinical one, based on the angiographic appearance of the artery and its relationship to surrounding anatomy, in contrast to an embryologic classification system.

An older clinical classification is based on work by Fischer in 1938 is also commonly used, as well as classification schemes based on the embryologic anatomy of the carotid artery.