Dorsal scapular artery at a glance
- What it is
- The dorsal scapular artery runs along the medial border of the scapula.
- Location
- Its origin varies. It arises directly from the second or third part of the subclavian artery in roughly half to two-thirds of people, and otherwise from the transverse cervical artery (as its deep branch). It passes through the brachial plexus and runs deep to levator scapulae and the rhomboids along the medial border of the scapula.
- Function
- It supplies the rhomboids and levator scapulae.
- Body system
- Cardiovascular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA10552 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- It joins the scapular anastomosis.
- It runs with the dorsal scapular nerve deep to the rhomboids.
Structures next to the dorsal scapular artery
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Scapula · skeletal
- Subscapularis · muscular
- Infraspinatus muscle · muscular
- Rhomboid major · muscular
- Main bronchus · respiratory
- Suprascapular artery · cardiovascular
- Serratus posterior superior · muscular
- Teres major · muscular
- Levatores costarum longi · muscular
- Superior pulmonary vein · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Dorsal scapular artery (FMA10552). 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.
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.