Arteries of the Upper Limb Scheme (Course, Branches, Parts) | Anatomy

Alright so this video is about the arterial blood 

supply of the upper limbs – All the way from the axillary artery until the tip of your fingerprints

So, as you know The aorta leaves the heart

Giving off the left common carotid artery The left subclavian

And the brachiocephalic trunk Which divides into the Right Common Carotid artery

And the left subclavian. We’re gonna have to follow the right subclavian artery from here, as 

the major blood supply to the upper extremities comes from the subclavian arteries. Now.

As soon as the subclavian artery passes the first rib, it’s going to become

Our axillary artery, and This is really where we’re going to 

start. The axillary artery is going to pass through the axilla, and then when 

it reaches the lower border of Teres Major, It’ll continue as the Brachial artery. 

Now this landmark really depends from text book to text book, in some places

You could see it written as the free margin of pectoralis major determines the border 

between the axillary and brachial artery, and both are essentially correct as you see here. So

The brachial artery will continue to the forearm and split into two terminal branches, the

Radial artery, laterally And the ulnar artery, medially. So as these two 

decend along the forearm, and reach the hand, The radial artery in the lateral side is going 

to enter the dorsum of the hand and then it will reenter the palm of the hand between the 

two heads of dorsal interosseus muscles As the deep palmar arch. So 

this is at the palm of the hand. The Ulnar artery is going to enter the hand

As the superficial palmar arch. So now that we’ve made our base, let’s fill this 

up with the side branches. So let’s get back to the armpit and do the axillary artery.

The axillary artery can be divided into three parts

Using the pectoralis minor as a landmark, because The 1st part is the part of the artery 

that is medial to pectoralis minor, The 2nd part lies behind Pec minor

And the 3rd part lies laterally to pectoralis minor.

The first part has one artery Called the superior thoracic 

artery, which supplies The deep muscles of 1st 

and 2nd intercostal spaces. The second part however has 2 sidebranches.

It has an artery that splits into four, called the Thoracoacromial artery. For

These just remember APCD, switching the letter B with a P.

A for Acromial P for Pectoral artery – supplying the pectoralis 

muscles + the mammary gland in females. C for Clavicular – supplying 

the subclavius muscle. D for Deltoid – supplying deltoid and pectoralis 

major. So that’s this one, the second sidebranch of the axillary artery behind pectoralis minor

Is the Lateral Thoracic Artery, Supplying the anterior 

serratus muscles, on the sides. And as it makes its way to the anterior serratus It gives off the Lateral 

Mammary Artery in females. So that’s the two branches 

behind pectoralis minor. For the last part of the Axillary artery

We need to add the scapula. Because it gives off the subscapular artery 

supplying the subscapular muscle. Then as subscapular artery continues

It divides into two arteries And those are the thoracodorsal, which goes 

down along the lateral margin of the scapula, supplying the anterior serratur muscle (just like 

the lateral thoracic artery), and it also supplies the Lats, lattisimus muscle, hence the name 

thoracodorsal, both muscles are posterior muscles. The other one is the Scapular Circumflex artery, 

which curves back to the infra spinour fossa forming a loop. And then it will eventually

Meet up with the suprascapular artery, remember this one? Coming from the 

thyrocervical trynk of the subclavian artery The two other arteries are 

associated with the Humerus. They are the anterior

And the posterior humeral circumflex arteries, going around the surgical 

neck of the humerus supplying structures there, like the shoulder joint and the deltoid 

muscle. So that’s the axillary artery. Now moving over to the brachial 

artery under the Teres Major, or the free margin of Pectoralis Major.

SO the brachial artery lies in the medial bicipital groove between the biceps and Triceps 

on the medial side. And the cool thing with this artery is that this is the artery you usually 

wanna auscultate when you wanna measure the blood pressure on someone’s arm. The other cool thing 

with it is that as it descends along the arm, It basically send out many branches supplying

The muscles of the anterior compartment of the arm, the coracobrachialis, 

biceps and brachialis muscles. But it do have side branches, and I wanna 

use this humerus over here to visualize them. It has the deep brachial, or profunda 

brachi, which goes behind the humerus in a groove called sulcus nervi radialis. It 

will supply the whole posterior compartment of the arm with blood, so the triceps, 

as well as supplying the bone itself. The rest of the arteries 

will work together to form A vascular network in the region of the elbow

Our first artery is the Inferior Ulnar Collateral. It arises above the medial epicondyle of 

the Humerus, and passes in front of it. The Superior Ulnar Collateral lies in the groove 

for the ulnar nerve, which remember lies behind the epicondyle.. and a way to remember this 

is that, that’s the nerve that hurt so much when you hit your lower medial part of elbow on 

something. So that’s the superior ulnar artery. Then posteriorly there’s the

Radial Collateral And the medial collateral from the deep 

brachial artery, going down towards the elbow. On the opposite side there’s the

Reccurent Radial that start from the radial artery, communicating with 

the radial collateral, as you see here. On the Ulnar side there’s 

the Recurrent Ulnar, which Divides into an anerior and a posterior 

branch, Anterior goes with the Inferior Ulnar, and the Posterior goes with 

the Superior Ulnar Collateral. The Medial collateral artery that’s 

left alone is a little special one; It has it’s own special partner.

Remember the membrane that’s between the Radius and Ulna? What was that membrane 

called? … It’s the interrosseus membrane! Ulnar Artery send out an artery called the 

common interroseous artery, which basically Divides into two arteries, one going 

behind the interrosseus membrane, and one in front, and they are called

The anterior and the posterior interosseous branches, thank god 

these doesn’t have any special name… *Speak Slowly* Since the medial collateral artery 

is located behind the elbow, then it’s buddy Comes from the posterior interosseus artery, 

called the recurrent interosseous artery. All this is called Rete Cubiti, and that is the 

vascular network in the region of the elbow. Now let’s continue and look at the Radial Artery.

The Radial artery will continue down between the brachioradial and flexor carpi radialis muscles, 

and then once it gets to the lower part of the lower arm above the styloid process of radius,

You can actually feel the pulse of this artery, try that now put the tip of your index and middle 

finger on top of the styloid process of the radius, on the inside of the wrist, you should 

be able to feel the radial artery pulsating. So Now let’s continue with this artery 

– After it passes the styloid process, It winds backwards behind the muscles of the

Thumb, the Thernal Muscles they’re called as you see here,

The artery going back and then underneath the tendons of these two 

muscles highlighted here in red, the extensor pollicis longus and abductor pollicis longus. It 

passes the anatomical snuff box, then it pierces The muscles of the 1st interroseal space

And end up in the palmar side again To meet up with the deep palmar 

artery of the ulnar artery, making The deep palmar arch. So the radial artery 

supplies the whole anterior compartment of the forearm + the radial side 

of the posterior compartment. The radial artery gives off the superficial palmar 

branch, which meets up with the ulnar artery Making the superficial palmar arch.

These two arches are really important blood source for the muscles of the hand. So 

that’s these. Now the wrist also needs some blood, And it gets that by the dorsal 

and the palmar carpal network The palmar carpal network is fromed by the 

palmar carpal arteries, one coming from the radial artery and one from the ulnar artery. The 

posterior Carpal Network is formed by 4 arteries Two dorsal carpal arteries, one from 

the Ulnar, and one from the Radial, the posterior interosseal artery and also

The anterior interosseal artery, which will piere the membrane and also contribute 

to the dorsal carpal network. And this is the Rete Palmaris

Now lastly, let’s do the blood supply of the hand. I know you’re tired and this 

is probably a lot to take in in one short video, but we’re soon done. So I already 

mentioned that the palm is supplied by the superficial and deep palmar arch

The superficial palmar arch will give off 3 common palmar digital arteries, 

and each of them will divide Into two arteries called the proper palmar digital

They supply the radial side of the little finger, the ring finger, the middle finger, 

and the ulnar side of the index finger. The thumb and the ulnar side of the index finger 

are supplies by the palmar digital arteries, coming from the princeps pollicis artery, or the 

principal artery of the thumb as you see here, coming from the radial artery just as it enters 

the palm. And as it forms the deep palmar arch, It gives off palmar metacarpal arteries, which 

help with the communication between the deep and the superficial palmar arches, 

helping with the blood supply of the fingers through the common palmar digital artery.

So now you’re probably wondering, what about the posterior part of the hand? Now The whole dorsal 

part of the hand is supplies by the dorsal carpal network, or arch, you can also call it the dorsal 

carpal arch, which give off the Dorsal metacarpal arteries, dividing into dorsal digital arteries.

So that’s all I had for the blood supply of the upper extremities. I know it’s a lot to take 

in straight away, but the more you study it the easier it becomes. I really hope you got a 

lot out from watch this video. Until next time