International Journal of Medical Research and Practice | Oct-Dec 2016 | Vol 1 | Issue 3 1 up, crossed the IJV, laryngeal nerve taking an oblique course it passed underneath the hypoglossal nerve and anterior belly of digastric muscle to enter digastric triangle. The occipital artery arose from the posterior part of ECA opposite the origin of linguofacial trunk and coursed upwards and backwards. The ascending pharyngeal artery took origin from the medial side of ECA slightly distal to the origin of LFT from ECA travelling between it and ICA. Posterior auricular artery arose above the level of occipital artery from ECA (Figs. 2 and 3). DISCUSSION Variations in branching pattern in ECA were observed which more or less correlated with earlier study, but the LFT length was 7.3 cm and 9.4 cm in origin and artery bifurcation of CCA. 6 Anatomical studies have revealed the presence of LFT unilaterally in 20% of population. 1 According to a study done by Berman et al. 9 facial artery may replace lingual artery and supply the sublingual gland. Linguofacial trunk bilaterally in 4.8% 1 population and 28.6% population have also been reported. 10 The facial artery passed upwards and forwards and reached posterior part of submandibular gland. Mata et al. 11 report a LFT frequency in 19.9% case of dissections and at the same time Troupis et al. 6 only two cases (6%). Fazan et al. 1 present it most frequently 20% in the right side and 24% in left side, only two corpses (4.9%) show a bilateral LFT information that represents low level of LFT in both sides of Bilateral linguofacial trunk in a cadaver Arpan Haldar Department of Anatomy, ESI-PGIMSR, Joka, Kolkata Submission: 12-07-2016 Revision: 30-08-2016 Publication: 30-09-2016 C ASE R EPORT http://www.intjmrp.com/ International Journal of Medical Research and Practice INTRODUCTION External carotid artery (ECA) irrigates large areas of head and neck being a vascular element of a great importance in surgical and radiological procedures. 1,2 It is known that ECA presents variations in the distribution in its anterior branches 3,4 finding common origins in forming trunks which can be thyro-linguo-facial truncus, thyro-lingual truncus, and linguo-facial trunks. 5 The linguo-facial trunk (LFT) has shown between 6% and 20% in analyzed cases and generally it is the most common of variations 6,7 not showing preference for one side or other. 1 These anatomical variations remain unnoticed during the life of an individual, but they become more important when there are changes associated with aging such as loss of elasticity of the trunk or aneurysms development of the trunk which are pathogenic. 8 MATERIALS AND METHODS During routine dissection of head and neck for undergraduate students, in a 70-year-old male cadaver in the Department of Anatomy, ESI Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Joka, Kolkata, the bifurcation of the common carotid artery (CCA) was exposed as were the branches of the ECA. The dissection in the neck was performed according to the conventional technique, carefully pulling the skin, the deep cervical fascia, sternocleidomastoid muscle and separating the internal jugular vein (IJV) and vagus nerve on both sides of body. Branching pattern of the ECA were examined on both sides and variations were found which were dissected carefully and photographed (Fig. 1). OBSERVATIONS The branching of the CCA of both sides was normal but LFT were observed over the beginning of the superior thyroid artery on both sides. On both sides distal to carotid bifurcation the ECA and its anterior branches was located lateral to ICA and medial to IJV. ECA gave rise to the superior thyroid artery 1 cm above the bifurcation below the tip of greater cornu of hyoid bone and LFT 3 cm from the bifurcation at the level of laryngeal prominence. The LFT measured was 5 cm of length in right side and 6 cm on left side from the beginning in ECA, until its bifurcation in facial artery and lingual artery. LFT first ran forwards and medially and then divides into lingual and facial arteries, medial to internal carotid artery (ICA). The lingual artery ascended vertically Figure 1: Linguofacial trunks in cadaver