watershed infarct

watershed infarct

[wô′tərshed]

an area of necrosis in the brain caused by an insufficiency of blood where the distributions of cerebral arteries overlap. The condition resembles that of an agricultural field irrigation system, in which the most distant sections may not be irrigated if there is a fall in water pressure.

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watershed infarct

Neurology Infarction of a region peripheral to 2 arteries and susceptible to ischemia; WIs are often hemorrhagic, as restoration of the circulation allows blood to flow into damaged capillaries and 'leak' into the ischemic tissue

Watershed infarctions-locations

Brain  After internal carotid artery occlusion, causing vascular 'steal' phenomena, or between the anterior and middle cerebral arteries, which may be compromised in circle of Willis occlusions, often in a background of generalized atherosclerosis and as a possible complication of directed therapeutic embolization; cerebral perfusion may be impaired by cardiac arrest, pericardial tamponade and ex-sanguination

Large intestine At either the splenic flexure, the site of anastomosis between the inferior and superior mesenteric arteries, or at the rectum, a region supplied by peripheral irrigation from the inferior mesenteric artery and the hypogastric artery