Skip to content
EasyAnatomyLab
Menu

Bronchial artery: anatomy, location and function

The bronchial arteries are small arteries that supply the bronchial tree and supporting tissue of the lungs. They supply the walls of the bronchi, the connective tissue of the lung, the visceral pleura and lymph nodes with oxygenated blood.

Loading 3D model…
Skin0%
Muscles100%

Structures

Loading… Click the model or search.

Highlighted in the model: Bronchial artery. Click any part to read about it, or switch off “Highlight topic” to see the whole body. 3D data: BodyParts3D, © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0; meshes simplified and recoloured. The model is an adult male.

Bronchial artery at a glance

What it is
The bronchial arteries are small arteries that supply the bronchial tree and supporting tissue of the lungs.
Location
Typically there are two on the left, from the descending thoracic aorta, and one on the right, from the third right posterior intercostal artery or a common trunk with a left bronchial artery. Their pattern varies. They follow the bronchi into the lung.
Function
They supply the walls of the bronchi, the connective tissue of the lung, the visceral pleura and lymph nodes with oxygenated blood.
Body system
Cardiovascular · single, midline structure
FMA ID
FMA68109 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)

Key facts

  • They form the systemic blood supply of the lung, separate from the pulmonary circulation.
  • Some bronchial venous blood drains into the pulmonary veins, adding a small amount of deoxygenated blood to the left heart (a normal physiological shunt).

Clinical relevance

They can enlarge and bleed in chronic lung disease; massive haemoptysis is usually treated by embolising them.

Structures next to the bronchial artery

The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:

References

  1. Foundational Model of Anatomy: Bronchial artery (FMA68109). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
  2. OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §20.1 Structure and Function of Blood Vessels. Rice University, 2022.
  3. 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.

Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.