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Subcostal artery: anatomy, location and function

The lowest segmental artery from the thoracic aorta, below the twelfth rib. It supplies the upper abdominal wall muscles and skin.

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Muscles100%

Structures

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Highlighted in the model: Subcostal artery. Click any part to read about it, or switch off “Highlight topic” to see the whole body. 3D data: BodyParts3D, © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0; meshes simplified and recoloured. The model is an adult male.

Subcostal artery at a glance

What it is
The lowest segmental artery from the thoracic aorta, below the twelfth rib.
Location
It arises from the thoracic aorta, runs along the lower border of the twelfth rib and passes into the abdominal wall behind the lateral arcuate ligament.
Function
It supplies the upper abdominal wall muscles and skin.
Body system
Cardiovascular · paired (left and right)
FMA ID
FMA4634 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)

Structures next to the subcostal artery

The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:

References

  1. Foundational Model of Anatomy: Subcostal artery (FMA4634). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
  2. OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §20.1 Structure and Function of Blood Vessels. Rice University, 2022.
  3. 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.