Internal carotid artery at a glance
- What it is
- The internal carotid artery supplies the brain and the eye.
- Location
- It begins at the carotid bifurcation, ascends in the neck without branching, enters the carotid canal, passes through the cavernous sinus and ends below the anterior perforated substance by dividing into the anterior and middle cerebral arteries. Its branches include the ophthalmic, posterior communicating and anterior choroidal arteries.
- Function
- It supplies the anterior part of the brain, the eye and the forehead.
- Body system
- Cardiovascular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA3949 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- It has cervical, petrous, cavernous and cerebral parts.
- The carotid siphon is its S-shaped bend within the cavernous sinus, where it lies beside the abducens nerve.
Clinical relevance
Carotid stenosis is a major cause of ischaemic stroke. A transient loss of vision in one eye (amaurosis fugax) can warn of disease in the internal carotid artery on that side.
Structures next to the internal carotid artery
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Levator veli palatini · muscular
- Salpingopharyngeus · muscular
- Tensor veli palatini · muscular
- Superior pharyngeal constrictor · muscular
- Rectus capitis anterior · muscular
- Pterygomandibular raphe · muscular
- Palatine bone · skeletal
- Digastric · muscular
- Stylohyoid · muscular
- Uvular muscle · muscular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Internal carotid artery (FMA3949). 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.