An aberrant cerebellar artery originating from the internal carotid artery

The aberrant origin of the cerebellar arteries from anterior cerebral circulation is a quite rare vascular variation. Herein, we report a 52-year-old white female with angiographically occult subarachnoid hemorrhage. Left superior and anterior inferior cerebellar arteries were not detected. An aberrant cerebellar artery was noted to arise from the left cavernous internal carotid artery and terminated in the distribution of the ipsilateral superior and anterior inferior cerebellar arteries. This variant artery might likely have resulted from an abnormal regression of fetal anterior-to-posterior circulation connections, and may represent a fetal-type cerebellar artery. A review of the anatomy and clinical significance of the variant is presented.