Posterior circumflex humeral artery at a glance
- What it is
- A branch of the axillary artery that wraps around the surgical neck of the humerus.
- Location
- It arises from the third part of the axillary artery, passes through the quadrangular space with the axillary nerve and anastomoses with the anterior circumflex humeral artery.
- Function
- It supplies the deltoid, shoulder joint and the teres muscles.
- Body system
- Cardiovascular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA22687 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- It passes through the quadrangular space with the axillary nerve.
- It is the main blood supply of the humeral head.
Clinical relevance
Fractures of the surgical neck of the humerus can damage it and the axillary nerve.
Structures next to the posterior circumflex humeral artery
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Anterior circumflex humeral artery · cardiovascular
- Acromial part of deltoid · muscular
- Clavicular part of deltoid · muscular
- Circumflex scapular artery · cardiovascular
- Subscapular artery · cardiovascular
- Deltoid branch of thoraco-acromial artery · cardiovascular
- Coracobrachialis · muscular
- Teres minor · muscular
- Spinal part of deltoid · muscular
- Axillary artery · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Posterior circumflex humeral artery (FMA22687). 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.