Cilioretinal arteries: incidence in a sample of 1110 patients

The central retinal artery, supplies retinal vasculature. In some cases, a part of retinal circulation is supplied by a cilioretinal artery. Cilioretinal arteries take rise from a posterior ciliary artey. It was first described by Müller in 1856 and first demonstrated histologically in 1876 by Nettleship, who stated that in sectioning of a human eye, he found “a small artery from the choroid turning round the edge of the disc, and running uninterruptedly for some distance in the retina, where it breaks up into capillaries.” The existence of the cilioretinal arteries is considered congenital. Cilioretinal arteries influence the visual prognosis in case of microvascular and neovascular diseases. In fact, they may reduce the damage due to vascular occlusion and neovascular AMD. On the other hand,studies suggest that cilioretinal arteries increase the risk of diabetic macular oedema.