Ricardo Olivares P-M; Rodrigo Leandro G.; Gustavo Farías R. & Diego Elgueda G.
This monograph aims to provide an update on the anatomy of the Vertebral Venous Plexus (VVP) of the dog with emphasis on its clinical and surgical relevance and to evaluate compliance of terms in the literature with Nomina Anatomica Veterinaria (NAV). Electronic searches were conducted using 9 databases, where a total of 49 bibliographic sources were reviewed. Of these, 20 consisted of scientific articles. Publications with more than 10 years old were excluded from review, except for basic reference veterinary anatomy books. Publications that were not written in English, Spanish or Portuguese were also excluded. In general, in the literature reviewed, there was consensus on what the components of the VVP are, along with a brief description of VVP. The most widely described component of the VVP is the Ventral Internal Vertebral Plexus (VIVP). The function of alternative venous blood return to the heart is the most frequently described. The absence of valves in the VIVP could be a promoting condition for tumor metastasis through the VVP. At the surgical level, VVP hemorrhage represents a non-negligible threat to the patient's survival. With respect to what has been reviewed and discussed, it can be concluded that: i) despite the scarce anatomical description of the VVP, it was possible to understand how it is composed ii) the level of evidence that supports the different functional capacities of the VVP is low, however, the information on the ocurrence of VVP hemorrhage in surgical procedures is greater and iii) the various bibliographical references describing the VVP did not comply with the current NAV.
KEY WORDS: Vertebral Venous Plexus, Ventral Internal Vertebral Plexus, External Vertebral Plexus, Vertebral Venous Sinus, Vertebral Venous Drainage.
OLIVARES P-M, R.; LEANDRO, G. R.; FARÍAS, R. G. & ELGUEDA, G. D. Clinical and surgical anatomy of the dog vertebral venous plexus, a literature review. Int. J. Morphol., 40(6):1434-1439, 2022.
