The deep cervical vein (posterior vertebral or posterior deep cervical vein) accompanies its artery between the Semispinales capitis and colli. It begins in the suboccipital region by communicating branches from the

occipital vein The occipital vein is a vein of the scalp. It originates from a plexus around the external occipital protuberance and superior nuchal line to the back part of the vertex of the skull. It usually drains into the internal jugular vein, but may al ...

and by small veins from the deep muscles at the back of the neck. It receives tributaries from the plexuses around the

spinous processes The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates,Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic i ...

of the

cervical vertebræ In tetrapods, cervical vertebrae (singular: vertebra) are the vertebrae of the neck, immediately below the skull. Truncal vertebrae (divided into thoracic and lumbar vertebrae in mammals) lie caudal (toward the tail) of cervical vertebrae. In ...

, and terminates in the lower part of the

vertebral vein The vertebral vein is formed in the suboccipital triangle, from numerous small tributaries which spring from the internal vertebral venous plexuses and issue from the vertebral canal above the posterior arch of the atlas. They unite with small v ...

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Veins of the head and neck {{circulatory-stub