The ascending pharyngeal artery is an

artery An artery (plural arteries) () is a blood vessel in humans and most animals that takes blood away from the heart to one or more parts of the body (tissues, lungs, brain etc.). Most arteries carry oxygenated blood; the two exceptions are the pul ...

in the neck that supplies the

pharynx The pharynx (plural: pharynges) is the part of the throat behind the mouth and nasal cavity, and above the oesophagus and trachea (the tubes going down to the stomach and the lungs). It is found in vertebrates and invertebrates, though its struc ...

, developing from the proximal part of the embryonic second

aortic arch The aortic arch, arch of the aorta, or transverse aortic arch () is the part of the aorta between the ascending and descending aorta. The arch travels backward, so that it ultimately runs to the left of the trachea. Structure The aorta begins a ...

. It is the smallest branch of the

external carotid The external carotid artery is a major artery of the head and neck. It arises from the common carotid artery when it splits into the external and internal carotid artery. External carotid artery supplies blood to the face and neck. Structure Th ...

and is a long, slender vessel, deeply seated in the neck, beneath the other branches of the external carotid and under the

stylopharyngeus The stylopharyngeus is a muscle in the head that stretches between the temporal styloid process and the pharynx. Structure The stylopharyngeus is a long, slender muscle, cylindrical above, flattened below. It arises from the medial side of the ...

muscle. It lies just superior to the bifurcation of the

common carotid arteries In anatomy, the left and right common carotid arteries (carotids) (Entry "carotid"
in
middle and

inferior pharyngeal constrictor The inferior pharyngeal constrictor muscle is a skeletal muscle Skeletal muscles (commonly referred to as muscles) are organs of the vertebrate muscular system and typically are attached by tendons to bones of a skeleton. The muscle cells of ...

muscles and the stylopharyngeus, ramifying in their substance and in the

mucous membrane A mucous membrane or mucosa is a membrane that lines various cavities in the body of an organism and covers the surface of internal organs. It consists of one or more layers of epithelial cells overlying a layer of loose connective tissue. It is ...

s lining them. These branches are in

hemodynamic Hemodynamics or haemodynamics are the dynamics of blood flow. The circulatory system is controlled by homeostatic mechanisms of autoregulation, just as hydraulic circuits are controlled by control systems. The hemodynamic response continuously mo ...

equilibrium with contributors from the

internal maxillary artery The maxillary artery supplies deep structures of the face. It branches from the external carotid artery just deep to the neck of the mandible. Structure The maxillary artery, the larger of the two terminal branches of the external carotid artery, ...

. The neuromeningeal trunk classically consists of jugular and hypoglossal divisions, which enter the jugular and hypoglossal foramina to supply regional meningeal and neural structures, being in equilibrium with branches of the vertebral, occipital, posterior meningeal, middle meningeal, and internal carotid arteries (via its caroticotympanic branch, meningohypophyseal, and inferolateral trunks). Also present is the inferior tympanic branch, which ascends towards the middle ear cavity; it is involved in internal carotid artery reconstitution via the "aberrant carotid artery" variant. The muscular branch of the ascending pharyngeal artery is in equilibrium with the odontoid arcade from the vertebral artery.

Course

It arises from the back part of the

, near the commencement of that vessel, and ascends vertically between the

internal carotid The internal carotid artery (Latin: arteria carotis interna) is an artery in the neck which supplies the anterior circulation of the brain. In human anatomy, the internal and external carotids arise from the common carotid arteries, where these b ...

and the side of the

, to the under surface of the base of the skull, lying on the

longus capitis The longus capitis muscle (Latin for ''long muscle of the head'', alternatively rectus capitis anticus major), is broad and thick above, narrow below, and arises by four tendinous slips, from the anterior tubercles of the transverse processes of th ...

References

External links

* http://neuroangio.org/anatomy-and-variants/ascending-pharyngeal-artery/ {{Authority control Arteries of the head and neck Pharynx