Circumflex scapular artery at a glance
- What it is
- The circumflex scapular artery is the large branch of the subscapular artery that passes round the lateral border of the scapula.
- Location
- It arises from the subscapular artery, passes through the triangular space (between teres minor, teres major and the long head of triceps) and reaches the infraspinous fossa, where it anastomoses with the suprascapular artery.
- Function
- It supplies the muscles on the back of the scapula and links the scapular arterial network.
- Body system
- Cardiovascular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA23181 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- The scapular anastomosis allows blood to bypass a blocked proximal subclavian or axillary artery.
Structures next to the circumflex scapular artery
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Subscapular artery · cardiovascular
- Posterior circumflex humeral artery · cardiovascular
- Teres minor · muscular
- Clavicular part of deltoid · muscular
- Anterior circumflex humeral artery · cardiovascular
- Axillary artery · cardiovascular
- Spinal part of deltoid · muscular
- Scapula · skeletal
- Infraspinatus muscle · muscular
- Subscapularis · muscular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Circumflex scapular artery (FMA23181). 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.