AXILLARY ARTERY-BRANCHES

SUMMARY

TIP: mnemonic (Screw The Lawyer, Save A Patient!)

1. First part:
- Superior thoracic a. Supplies both pectoral muscles.

2. Second part:
- Thoracoacromial a. (has 4 terminal branches)
- Lateral thoracic a. (supplies both pectoral muscles & breast in women).

3. Third part:
- Subscapular a. (gives the circumflex scapular a. and changes its name to the thoracodorsal a.)
- Anterior circumflex humeral a. (anastamoses with the posterior circumflex humeral a. at the surgical neck of the humerus)
- Posterior circumflex humeral a. (accompanies the axillary n. through the quadrangular space to supply the deltoid).



Image: Case courtesy of Dr Sachintha Hapugoda, Radiopaedia.org. From the case rID: 52195 [Accessed 16 Apr. 2019].

Reference(s)

R.M.H McMinn (1998). Last’s anatomy: regional and applied. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.
Gray, H., Carter, H.V. and Davidson, G. (2017). Gray’s anatomy. London: Arcturus.