Description

This video covers:

• Anatomy of the Common Carotid Artery
• Anatomy of the External Carotid Artery – Course and Side Branches
• Blood Supply of the Teeth
• Blood Supply of the Nasal Cavity

Common Carotid Artery:

• Right Common Carotid Artery originates from the Aorta.
• Left Common Carotid Artery originates from the Brachiocephalic trunk.
• Ascends without side branches.
• Divides at the upper border of the thyroid cartilage.
• Contains the Carotid Body.

External Carotid Artery:

Mnemonic: Some Anatomists Like Freaking Out Poor Medical Students

Anterior Side Branches:

• Superior Thyroid Artery: Muscular branches and Superior Laryngeal Artery.
• Lingual Artery: Deep Lingual Artery, Dorsal Lingual Artery, Sublingual Artery.
• Facial Artery:
  • Mnemonic: TAGS ALL
  • Cervical Branches of Facial Artery (TAGS):
    • Tonsillary Artery
    • Ascending Facial Artery
    • Glandular Artery
    • Submental Artery
  • Facial Branches of Facial Artery (ALL):
    • Angular Artery – anastomoses with Dorsal Nasal Artery.
    • Superior and Inferior Labial Artery.
    • Lateral Nasal Artery.

Medial Side Branches:

• Ascending Pharyngeal Artery: Posterior Meningeal Artery, Inferior Tympanic Artery.

Posterior Side Branches:

• Occipital Artery: Mastoid Artery and Sternocleidomastoid Artery.
• Posterior Auricular Artery: Auricular Branch and Stylomastoid Artery.

Terminal Branches:

Maxillary Artery:

• Temporomandibular Joint:
  • Deep Auricular Artery.
  • Anterior Tympanic Artery.
  • Middle Meningeal Artery – Superior Tympanic Branch.
    • Clinical Note: Rupture of the Middle Meningeal Artery leads to an Epidural Hematoma, causing severe headache.
  • Inferior Alveolar Artery – Mental Branch, Dental and Peridental Branches, Mylohyoid Branch.
• Infratemporal Fossa:
  • Masseteric Artery.
  • Anterior and Posterior Deep Temporal Artery.
  • Pterygoid Branches.
  • Buccal Artery.
• Pterygopalatine Fossa:
  • Superior Posterior Alveolar Artery.
  • Infraorbital Artery – Superior Alveolar Artery.
  • Descending Palatine Artery – Lesser Palatine and Greater Palatine Artery.
  • Sphenopalatine Artery.
  • Artery of the Pterygopalatine Canal.

Superficial Temporal Artery:

• Frontal Branch – anastomoses with the Supraorbital Artery of the Ophthalmic Artery.
• Parietal Branch – anastomoses with the Posterior Auricular Artery and the Occipital Artery.
• Side Branches of the Temporal Artery:
  • Anterior Auricular.
  • Transverse Facial Artery – supplies the Parotid Gland, Masseter Muscle, and Skin.
  • Middle Temporal Artery.

Blood Supply of the Teeth:

• Inferior Alveolar Artery.
• Superior Anterior Alveolar Artery.
• Superior Posterior Alveolar Artery.

Blood Supply of the Nasal Cavity:

• Greater Palatine Artery.
• Sphenopalatine Artery.
• Anterior and Posterior Ethmoidal Arteries.
• Superior Labial Artery.

Clinical Note: These arteries form Kisselbach’s Area (Little’s Area), which is the most common site for nosebleeds when ruptured in the nasal septum.

Sources Used:

• Memorix Anatomy (2nd Edition) – Hudák Radovan, Kachlík David, Volný Ondřej.
• Complete Anatomy by 3D4Medical.
• Biorender.
• University Notes and Lectures.

Transcript

1. Alright so this video is going to be about the common carotid, and the external carotid artery.
So before I start, I just wanna inform that the arteries and branches this video is very schematic, but hopefully they will help you get a complete picture of this topic. I’ve also put some mneumonics along the way for you to use if you want to.
2. Now – we’ll start here, looking at the common carotid artery ascending along the neck
3. And as it reaches the upper border of the thyroid cartilage, it’ll divide
4. Into the external and the internal carotid arteries. There’s really not much to say about the common carotid artery since it doesn’t really have any side branches at all, it just ascends and then divides at the upper border of the thyroid cartilage.
One special thing with it though, is that at the upper part of it,
5. It has some chemoreceptors called the carotid bodies, which senses the chemical changes in the bloodstream, as a part of the homeostasis.
6. Similarly, you can find some receptors at the beginning of the internal carotid artery called the carotid sinus. These are one of the major baroreceptors we have, and changes the diameter of the blood vessel if it senses a stretch.
That’s really all I had for the common carotid. Let’s now focus on the external carotid artery.
7. It’ll continue upwards, and as it reaches the retromndibular fossa
8. It divides into two terminal branches
9. These are called the maxillary artery and the superficial temporal artery.
10. So let’s just remove the internal carotid to clear up space.
Again; just keep in mind that the anatomical placement might not be 100% accurate; I’ve just tried to simplify them so it gets easier to visualize and hopefully remember them.
11. Now let’s look into the side branches of the external carotid
12. I found a little mneumonic for the side branches that was quite helpful. It’s some Anatomists Like Freaking Out Poor Medical Students.
13. Arranging them like this using the first letter
14. The first one is the Superior Thyroid, one of the 3 arteries coming out from the anterior
15. Side of external carotid. It begins at the level of the hyoid bone, and then descends down to the thyroid gland to supply it from the superior side. On it’s way down it gives off muscular branches for the straight muscles of the neck.
Remember these are the Thyrohyoid, Sternohyoid, Omohyoid and Sternohyoid, as well as the middle region of the sternocleidomastoid muscle.
16. A part from that it also give off the Superior Laryngeal artery, which supply the muscles of the Larynx.
17. Next up is the Ascending Pharyngeal, which is the only side branch of the External Carotid that leaves towards the Medial side.
18. This one ascends along the pharynx, and then
19. Enters though the Jugular foramen to the posterior part of the cranial cavity as the posterior meningeal artery.
So it supplies the Pharynx, along with the pharyngeal constrictor muscles and also the meninges.
20. It also gives of the inferior tympanic artery, which supplies the tympanic cavity, or the middle ear, where you’ll find the ossicles.
21. Next up is the Lingual artery, which is also one of the anterior branches of the external carotid.
22. It branch off at the level of the thyroid bone, pierces through the muscles of the tongue, and then
23. End up as the deep lingual artery. It supply the whole tongue with blood,
24. And give off the dorsal lingual artery for the mucus layer of the dorsal part of the tongue.
25. As well as the Sublingual artery supplying both the mucosa at the floor of the mouth and the sublingual gland. SO that’s the lingual artery.
26. Next one, and this is the last one of the anterior branch, is the Facial artery.
It goes out from the external carotid at the region of the mandibular angle, then it curves towards the face at the base of the mandible and then continues upwards to the medial side of the eyes as the angular artery.
I’ve divided the side branches into 2 groups. The ones branching out at the
27. Cervical region, and the ones that branch out at the facial region. And for these, I’ve got another mneumonic for you guys.
28. They go TAGS
29. ALL. Now for the cervical branches weæve got
30. The Tonsillary artery supplying the palate tonsille
31. Ascending Palate which goes to the soft palate to supply that
32. Glandular artery for the submandibular gland
33. And the submental artery,which also supplies the submandibular gland, as well as the floor of the mouth. So those are TAGS – the cervical branches.
34. For the facial branches, we’re gonna use ALL. A for Angular artery si the first – It’s not really a side branch, rather it’s a terminal branch, which communicates with an artery coming out from the medial corner of the eye called
35. Dorsal Nasal, which essentially comes from the ophthalamic artery. So the facial and ophthalamic artery anestemose here.
36. Then there’s L for Superior and Inferior Labial arteries, supplying the top and bottom lip.
37. And the last L stands for the Lateral Nasal, supplying the dorsum and the nasal wings.
38. That’s mostly is for the facial artery. I use Tags ALL as a way to remember it.
39. Next up is the Occipital artery, branching out posteriorly form the external carotid.
40. As you see here, supplying the Occipital region with blood. It has a
41. Mastoid branch – going into the mastoid foramen supplying the meninges, and we also have the
42. Sternocleidomastoid branch, for the sternocleidomastoid muscle.
In addition to that it has a side branch for the external ear, as well as some descending branches supplying the neck muscles like the Trapezius.
SO really to remember the occipital artery, just associate it with everything you find in the posterior part of the head and the neck, and you should be fine.
43. The other posterior branch of the External Carotid Artery is the Posterior Auricle
44. It travels towards the backside of the auricle and basically terminates as the auricular branch. It really just supply the scalp behind the ear as well as the external ear aswell.
45. A part from that it also give off the stylomastoid artery, which enters the stylomastoid foramen and supply all structures int here, like the tympanic cavity, the antrum, the mastoid cells, as well as the semicircular canals. So that’s the posterior auricular artery.
46. Now for the last two, the terminal branches
47. Maxilla
48. And the Superficial Temporal Artery, I think it’s easier to look at them
49. If we clean things up a little bit.
50. The maxillary artery’s origin is behind the neck of the mandible. At first it’s imbedded into the parotid gland, then continues towards the pterygopalatine fossa.
Now we divide the maxillary artery into 3 parts according to it’s anatomical placement.
51. The first one is behind the Temporomandibular Joint
52. The Second one is in the Infratemporal Fossa
53. And the last part is where it terminates, the Pterygopalatine Fossa. So let’s start with
54. The branches at the temporomandibular Joint.
55. The first branch
56. Is the Deep Auricular Artery. This one will enter the bony wall for the external acoustic meatus to supply the skin of the canal and part of the tympanic membrane since they’re both located in the same area. It can sometimes give small branches to the temporomandibular joint as well.
57. It has the anterior tympanic artery, which pass through the Petrotympanic Fissure to supply the middle ear.
58. It also give off the middle meningeal artery, which enters the middle cranial fossa through
59. Foramen Spinosum to supply quite a huge area of the meninges. It also give off
60. The superior tympanic branch for the middle ear, so there are quite a couple of arteries from the External Carotid supplying structures in the ear.
The middle meningeal artery is actually an artery you’ll hear quite a lot about when you work in clinics, because most traumas that directly injure the skull, will lead to an epidural hematoma, or epidural bleeding due to rupture in the middle meningeal artery, giving a reealy painful headache. So remember that, that it originally comes from the maxillary artery behind the temporomandibular joint, entering the skull through foramen spinosum…
61. Then another really important branch is the Inferior Alveolar Artery, which goes along the mandibular canal, and
62. Goes out through the mental foramen as the mental artery supplying th skin and muscles of the chin. The inferior alveolar artery is important
63. Since it provides blood supply to the inferior teeth and gums through the dental and peridental branch.
64. As well as the muscles of the floor of the the mouth, the mylohyoid muscles and the anterior belly of musculus digastricus.
65. Now over to the branaches of the Infratemporal fossa. This is where the
66. Artery pass between the Lateral and the Medial Pterygoid muscles- remember those are a part of the muscles of mastication. And the side branches here are also mostly fort he muscles of mastication.
67. There’s the Masseteric artery for the messeteric muscle
68. Deep temporal arteries, there’s two branches for the temporal muscle, anterior and posterior temporal arteries.
69. We have a pterygoid branch for the pterygoid muscles
70. Then lastly there’s the Buccal artery, for the Buccinator. That’s the muscle that aids in smiling and pushing the food as you chew.
71. As for the Pterygoid fossa, there’s
72. 5 branches
73. There’s the Superior Posterior Alveolar Artery, which run behind the temporal arch along the maxillary tuberosity and then enter the alveolar canals.
This artery will supply the
74. Premolar
75. And Molar teeth, the gums and also the maxillary sinus, or the mucosa of the maxillary sinus, since it passes through it aswell.
76. Next in the list is the infraorbital artery, it goes into the optic cavity through the inferior optic fissure, then it’ll sneak
77. Out from the Orbita to the anterior region of the face through the infraorbital foramen, and then it’ll supply the anterior region of the face. So I guess this went too fast for you, I’ll go through it again.
78. As you see here, through the inferior optic fissure, into the orbita, then
79. Out through the infraorbital foramen to the anterior region of the face. And you see in this picture that on it’s way, it’ll
80. Branch out an artery for the maxillary sinus, the incisors
81. The canine teeth
82. And the gums. And that branch supplying the anterior part of the superior teeth is called the Superior Anterior Alveolar artery, and that’s the blood supply of the teeth.
So now that the maxillary artery keeps going into the pterygopalatine fossa
83. It gives off the descending palatine artery.
The descending palatine artery will travel a short distance within the pterygopalatine fossa and then enter the
84. Greater palatine Canal. It’s a little hard to show it through a presentation, specially because I’m bad at animation. But it travels down and exits at around the 2nd/3rd molars, and divides into
85. The lesser palatine and greater palatine arteries. Supplying the hard and soft palate, and also the gums.
86. The greater palatine will continue and enter the nasal cavity through the
87. Incisive canal to anestemose with the
88. Other branch of maxillary artery, the sphenopalatine artery. The sphenopalatine artery will pass through the sphenopalatine foramen into he asal cavity.
89. Now these two arteries, together with the
90. Anterior and posterior ethmoidal arteries, and the superior Labial artery, will anestemose at the nasal septum and form this area called
91. Little area, or Kisselbachs area. And in the majority of time when you nosebleed, it’s because you’ve ruptured some of the vessels in Little’s area in the septum of the nose.
92. SO that’s these two. Lastly ther’s the artery of the
93. Pterygoid canal. It may have various origin points, but mainly it’s in the pterygoid canal and supply the auditory tube and a little bit of the tympanic cavity aswell.
94. Now finally the last one fo the External Carotid the the Superficial Temporal Artery. So after the external carotid divides into the maxillary and superficial temporal artery,
It’ll
95. Continue upwards in front of the ear and then divide into
96. Two terminal branches, and they are
97. The frontal branch and the Parietal Branch
98. The frontal branch will run tottuously upwards and forward to the forehead to supply the muscles, skin and bones, basically everything in this region. Then it’ll anestemose with
99. The Supraorbital artery of the ophthalaic artery in the orbita, which comes from the internal carotid.
The parietal branch of the superficial temporal artery
100. Will curve upwards and backwards to the side of the head, lying very superficially, to supply the parietal region with blood.
101. As well as connecting with the two arteries back here, the posterior auricle and occipital arteries of the external carotid. It also connects with the parietal branch of the other side of the head. In terms of side branches; they’re very limited to the region of the superficial temporal artery. They are the
102. Anterior auricular branches, supplying the auricle and the external acoustic meatus.
103. There’s the Transverse Facial artery, which passes transversely across the side of the face and supplies the
104. Parotid Gland
105. The masseter muscle, as well as
106. The skin on the side of the face.
It do anestemose with the arteries you’ll find in this region like the facial artery, the infraorbital artery, the masseteric artery of the maxilla, and so forth.
107. Then lastly the middle temporal supplying the temporal muscle
108. So that’s all I had for the common carotid and the external carotid arteries. I really hope this video helped in any way to understand these arteries, as long as you make sure to go through it several times, It will eventually stick into your memory.