Deep brachial artery at a glance
- What it is
- The deep brachial (profunda brachii) artery is the main branch of the brachial artery in the upper arm.
- Location
- It arises from the brachial artery near the lower border of teres major and runs with the radial nerve in the radial groove of the humerus behind the arm. It gives off the middle and radial collateral arteries, a deltoid (ascending) branch and a nutrient artery to the humerus.
- Function
- It supplies the triceps and the humerus and joins the arterial network at the elbow.
- Body system
- Cardiovascular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA22697 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Its radial collateral branch anastomoses with the radial recurrent artery.
- It is the main supply of the posterior compartment of the arm.
Clinical relevance
A humeral shaft fracture may injure it along with the radial nerve.
Structures next to the deep brachial artery
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Medial head of triceps brachii · muscular
- Brachial artery · cardiovascular
- Lateral head of triceps brachii · muscular
- Long head of biceps brachii · muscular
- Long head of triceps brachii · muscular
- Humerus · skeletal
- Brachialis · muscular
- Short head of biceps brachii · muscular
- Superior ulnar collateral artery · cardiovascular
- Middle collateral branch of deep brachial artery · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Deep brachial artery (FMA22697). 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.