Anatomy study note · Head and neck

Subclavian artery

The right arises from the brachiocephalic artery, the left from the aortic arch. It arches over the pleura through the interscalene triangle and becomes the axillary artery at the outer border of the first rib. Scalenus anterior divides it into three parts.

Key points

• 3 parts by scalenus anterior.
• 1st: vertebral, thyrocervical, internal thoracic. 2nd: costocervical. 3rd: none.
• Compress the 3rd part on the 1st rib.
• Left: 7th cervical intersegmental. Right: 4th arch + 7th intersegmental.
• Retro-oesophageal right subclavian.
• Artery: intima / media (smooth muscle) / adventitia.
• Most named arteries are muscular; aorta is elastic.

The full note in the atlas also covers

Branches · Histology · Development · Clinical notes

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Written from

• Snell’s Clinical Anatomy by Regions, 10th ed., ch. 12, PDF pp. 1642–1645
• Inderbir Singh’s Human Embryology, ch. 15, PDF pp. 250–251, 253, 256, 258
• BRS Cell Biology & Histology, 7th ed., ch. 11, PDF pp. 197–199

More from the head and neck

• Subclavian vein
• Sublingual gland
• Submandibular gland
• Superficial and regional cervical lymph nodes
• Superior oblique
• Superior rectus
• Superior temporal gyrus
• Teeth
• Temporal bone
• Temporal lobe
• Temporalis
• Temporomandibular joint

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