Anatomy study note · Upper limb

Radial artery

The smaller terminal branch of the brachial artery. It runs down the lateral forearm, crosses the anatomical snuffbox and enters the palm to form the deep palmar arch.

Key points

• Pulse lateral to the FCR tendon.
• Crosses the anatomical snuffbox.
• Forms the DEEP palmar arch (proximal border of the extended thumb).
• Gives princeps pollicis + radialis indicis.
• Allen test before cannulation.
• Upper limb axis artery: 7th cervical intersegmental.
• Radial and ulnar arteries appear late.
• 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. 3, PDF pp. 381–384, 463
• Inderbir Singh’s Human Embryology, ch. 15, PDF pp. 256, 258
• BRS Cell Biology & Histology, 7th ed., ch. 11, PDF pp. 197–199

More from the upper limb

• Radial nerve
• Radioulnar joints and interosseous membrane
• Radius
• Rhomboid major
• Rhomboid minor
• Scapula
• Serratus anterior
• Shoulder joint
• Sternoclavicular joint
• Subclavius
• Subscapular nerves
• Subscapularis

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