Inferior thyroid artery at a glance
- What it is
- The inferior thyroid artery supplies the thyroid and parathyroid glands.
- Location
- It arises from the thyrocervical trunk, ascends along scalenus anterior, then curves medially behind the carotid sheath to reach the back of the lower thyroid gland. It gives the ascending cervical, inferior laryngeal, glandular, tracheal and esophageal branches.
- Function
- It supplies the thyroid, parathyroid glands, trachea, esophagus and larynx.
- Body system
- Cardiovascular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA10697 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- The recurrent laryngeal nerve lies close to it.
- It arches medially behind the carotid sheath at about C6 before reaching the back of the thyroid.
Clinical relevance
The recurrent laryngeal nerve is at risk during ligation in thyroid surgery.
Structures next to the inferior thyroid artery
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Scalenus anterior · muscular
- Thyrocervical trunk · cardiovascular
- Transverse cervical artery · cardiovascular
- Internal jugular vein · cardiovascular
- Costocervical trunk · cardiovascular
- Sternocleidomastoid · muscular
- Sternohyoid · muscular
- Scalenus medius · muscular
- Superior intercostal artery · cardiovascular
- Sternothyroid · muscular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Inferior thyroid artery (FMA10697). 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.