Comment on “An incidental finding of the accessory inferior thyroid artery”

To the Editor, International Journal of Anatomical Variations: I read the recently published article “An incidental finding of the accessory inferior thyroid artery” by Jiri Sedy [1] with keen interest and found the article very enlightening. The authors have provided useful information regarding the variant thyroid artery, which will be helpful for the anatomists and mostly surgeons working on thyroid area. The anatomy of inferior thyroid arteries is variable. These paired arteries even be absent on one or both sides in about 0.2 to 6% of cases [2-6]. The inferior thyroid artery when usually small or absent may be replaced or supplemented by thyroidea ima artery or if it is absent on both sides; on the right side it may be replaced by an artery branching off from the right internal thoracic artery and on the left side by an artery, a branch of vertebral artery [3]. During routine dissection, Moriggl & Oturm found out the absence of both inferior thyroid arteries and right superior thyroid artery in a 7-year old female donor. In this case a large lowest thyroid artery took origin from the left internal thoracic artery to supply the thyroid gland [4]. A study by Ramesh Rao et al. showed absence of both inferior thyroid arteries and both superior thyroid arteries solely supplied the thyroid tissue by giving superior and inferior branches [5]. Even though origin of accessory inferior thyroid artery from the thyrocervical trunk is rare, there are reports in the literature [7,8]. To my opinion the paper by Jiri Sedy [1] was informative and addition of these points will strengthen the article. © IJAV. 2008; 1: 35.