Anatomy study note · Head and neck

Maxillary artery

The larger terminal branch of the external carotid artery. It runs forward across the infratemporal fossa and through the pterygomaxillary fissure into the pterygopalatine fossa.

Key points

• Larger terminal branch of the ECA (behind the mandibular neck).
• Infratemporal fossa → pterygomaxillary fissure → pterygopalatine fossa.
• Middle meningeal (foramen spinosum), inferior alveolar, muscular, posterior superior alveolar.
• Descending palatine, pterygoid canal, infraorbital, sphenopalatine.
• ECA: bud from the 3rd arch artery.
• Artery: intima / media (smooth muscle) / adventitia.
• Most named arteries are muscular; aorta is elastic.

The full note in the atlas also covers

Course · Branches · Histology · Development · Clinical notes

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Written from

• Snell’s Clinical Anatomy by Regions, 10th ed., ch. 12, PDF pp. 1556, 1559–1560, 1609–1610
• Inderbir Singh’s Human Embryology, ch. 15, PDF pp. 249, 251
• BRS Cell Biology & Histology, 7th ed., ch. 11, PDF pp. 197–199

More from the head and neck

• Maxillary nerve
• Medial pterygoid
• Medial rectus
• Medulla oblongata
• Midbrain
• Middle cerebral artery
• Muscles of facial expression
• Musculus uvulae
• Mylohyoid
• Nasal bone
• Occipital bone
• Occipital lobe

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