Brachiocephalic artery at a glance
- What it is
- The brachiocephalic artery (trunk) is the first branch of the aortic arch and supplies the right head, neck and arm.
- Location
- It arises from the arch behind the manubrium, ascends to the right and divides behind the right sternoclavicular joint into the right common carotid and right subclavian arteries. It exists only on the right side.
- Function
- It supplies the right side of the head and neck and the right upper limb.
- Body system
- Cardiovascular · single, midline structure
- FMA ID
- FMA3932 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- It is about 4 to 5 cm long and has no branches in most people.
- The left brachiocephalic vein crosses in front of it, and the trachea lies behind and to its left.
Structures next to the brachiocephalic artery
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Brachiocephalic vein · cardiovascular
- Trachea · respiratory
- Common carotid artery · cardiovascular
- Arch of aorta · cardiovascular
- Superior vena cava · cardiovascular
- Sternothyroid · muscular
- Bronchial artery · cardiovascular
- Internal jugular vein · cardiovascular
- Inferior oblique part of longus colli · muscular
- First posterior intercostal artery · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Brachiocephalic artery (FMA3932). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §20.1 Structure and Function of Blood Vessels. Rice University, 2022.
- Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
Related anatomy
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.