Vascular territories of the tongue: anatomical study and clinical applications

The goal of this cadaver study has to propose the concept of angiosomes of the tongue (arterial cartography) from the notion of lingual artery segmentation, known in the literature since 1998. Fifteen fresh cadaver heads were used in this study. Four selective ink injections were made in specific location of the lingual artery like the segmentation concept. Three mucosal territories of the tongue were defined and they appear dependent on the precise segments of the lingual artery. The territory of the deep lingual artery is the dorsal side of the tongue, the territory of the sublingual artery is the ventral side and the territory depending of the dorsal artery is the root of tongue. No study was published yet about the vascular territories of the tongue. This study brings an additional knowledge and a review about the vascular risk of the tongue resections. The originality of this study consists of the description of vascular territories of tongue proceeding to different segment of lingual artery, which has not been described in the literature since now. The knowledge of these two notions is useful before every tongue resection, which can compromise the vascularity of the remaining tongue, and at the time of the lingual revascularization, once this vascularity is compromise.